


Sweet Home Purgatory

by Firecracker12



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: A little champ/waverly, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Sweet Home Alabama Fusion, Country AF AU, Country Nicole, Cows, Eventual Smut, F/F, Happy Ending, Loosely based AU, Maybe - Freeform, Slow Burn, So much angst, Yeehaw Content., and so many memories, divorce AU I guess you could say?, heavy hearts here, poor calamity, ranch au, street dance content, unfortunately, why did I make this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-05-30 22:49:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 43,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19413010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firecracker12/pseuds/Firecracker12
Summary: 10 years ago high school sweethearts Waverly and Nicole got married in a hast.8 years later the pair are divorced...well maybe not legally.With Waverly engaged to be wed to someone else, she finds herself back in Purgatory to handle something she should have 8 years ago, getting her stubborn as a mule ex to actually sign the divorce papers she agreed upon.-This is a alternate universe very *loosely* based on the concept of the movie Sweet Home Alabama.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone and welcome to my AU. Honestly I have no idea why I had an urge to write this but it just came to me one day and I had to do it. This is an AU loosely based off the movie Sweet Home Alabama. For those that have not seen the movie, or maybe do not enjoy it, my story basically stole the concept of the divorce situation but not much else so you do not have to be knowledgeable of the movie to *hopefully* enjoy my story!  
> There’s a lot of YeeHaw content in this thing so if that’s not your type of story you may not enjoy this. Lol. Unfortunately there is some champ and waverly but it will be a minimual amount. Views will go from Waverly to Nicole. 
> 
> Anywho I’m rambling, enjoy!

Waverly winced, closing her eyes and clenching her jaw as the brakes screeched and brought the old greyhound bus to a rolling stop outside the city sign. She breathed deeply, holding in the air at the highest point as she took a quick glance out of the dirty tinted bus window, taking note of the same bleak landscape she never thought she would have to see again. 

“Last stop folks, er, well… folk.” The bus driver corrected as he turned around and made note of the only lonely passenger on his bus who was currently trying to drag her overstuffed luggage down the aisle running between the vastly empty rows of bus seats. 

“Maybe I should...uhh..pack lighter next time.” Waverly grunted as she pulled the roller bag the multiple steps of the bus. “I take that back, hopefully there won’t be a next time.” She mumbled to herself as she swiped the sweat covered baby hairs from her forehead and straightened her shirt that had ridden up in her not so gracious attempt to exit the bus. 

“Thank you sir.” 

“Just doing my job mam.” the bus driver politely tipped his hat as he gripped the lever used to close the door. “Have a nice stay.”

With that the bus driver closed the door as the exhaust of the bus kicked and the large machine clumsy rolled away from Waverly, kicking up clouds of dust as she desperately waved her hands in front of her face in an effort to clear the air. She coughed lightly as she looked around, the remnants of a worn down sign she’d been so happy to see the back of years ago. Now looking at it from the side she was currently situated on she had an ever growing pit in the bottom of her stomach,

Welcome to Purgatory that once stood in a bright blue hue now looked back at her with a sombering gray that she couldn’t help but notice ironically matched her mood perfectly. Underneath that read the town logo the adult residence had voted on when she was a little girl.

You can come, but you may never want to leave. 

“More like you’d never want to come back.” Waverly laughed lightly at herself, a loud voice from bellowing from behind her startling her from her own inner thoughts.

“I feel so honored! If it isn’t the Princess of Purgatory herself, returning to her castle after all these years to grace us lowly jesters with her grand prescenes.”

Waverly rolled her eyes, not being able to stop the wide smile that crept up her face as she turned around to see her sister hanging out the driver’s door of her familiar old blue Chevy, wearing her signature black leather jacket and jackass-like grin. 

“And who does the town outcast think she is to approach the Princess.” Waverly retorted playfully as she dragged her bag towards the truck, Wynonna meeting her halfway and enveloped her into a crushing hug, 

“Good to see you babygirl.” She sighed contently as she squeezed the younger Earp earnestly.

“I missed you.” Waverly choked out, struggling to keep her emotions at bay. 

“You know it never has to be as long as the last time before you see us again.” Wynonna retorted as she released Waverly and reached to pick up her bag, struggling mightily as she shuffled to the back of the truck. “God damn Waves what the hell is in this thing? I thought you were only staying a few days.”

“Well that's the plan” Waverly agreed, grabbing a corner of the luggage and helping wynonna shove it into the bed of the truth before she slammed the tailgate.”But i had to prepare to be here longer than that because it’s not like I’m dealing with the most rational of situations.”

Wynonna eyed Waverly cautiously, pausing as the brunette wiped her hands along the front of her jeans before she looked back up with expectancy. 

“What?”

“Nothing” Wynonna lied, shaking her head before looking back at Waverly with a hint of seriousness. “It’s just… are you sure you want to do this?” she asked cautiously. 

Waverly exhaled loudly, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms across her chest. She bit back her aggravation, not wanting to cause a fuss with her sister nor wanting to argue a point that felt like beating a dead horse. 

“I’m honestly surprised ole blue still runs Wynonna.” Waverly smoothly, abit expertly, shifted the conversation. “What’s she got now? 300,000 miles?”

“And I bet she could run another 300,000.” Wynonna defended as they both climbed into the cab of the truck, the familiar smell of old leather creeping into Waverly’s senses and bringing her back in time. She could practically trace every etch and tear in the leather from memory, similar to the way she could to herself. Hell she had only rode in the passenger’s seat of that truck everyday since Wynonna had been gifted it by their Aunt Gus. Well, everyday since D-Day, as Wynonna so graciously coined it, but better known to everyone as the day Waverly picked up everything she owned and decided to drive out of Purgatory and never look back. A decision she considered the hardest one she had ever had to make, right behind the one that is actually the hardest that is. 

“Earth to Waverly!” Wynonna snapped her fingers in front of Waverly’s face, shaking her from her being lost in her own small town memories. 

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I said it’s great to have you back home babygirl, we really missed you around here.” 

“I’m not back home Wynonna.” Waverly corrected her, even the thought making her cringe that there could be a possibility of that. “I'm just here to see about my business and then I’m gone just as before. In and out, easy as that.”

“Easy, huh?” Wynonna questioned with a chuckle, knowing that no matter how much Waverly may wish it to be so nothing would ever be easy in her situation. 

“Yeah you’re right.” Waverly agreed, rubbing her hands up and down her face in exhaustion. “Easy would have been getting this done eight years ago like we agreed to at the time.” 

“She has always been hardheaded hasn’t she?” Wynonna snorted. 

“Damn boneheaded is more like it.” Waverly said dryly as she dug through her bag and pulled out her Tylenol, popping two as Wynonna looked on at her. 

“I’m sorry baby girl.” Wynonna patted her leg sympathetically. “I know this must be tough on you.”

“Eight years ago it was tough Wynonna, agonizing even. Today it is just a pain in my ass, much like the cause of said pain.” Waverly said as she gazed out of the truck window, passing by rustic old store fronts that, to no surprise, hadn’t changed in the slightest. “But it’ll all be over soon enough. Nothing is stopping me this time.” 

“That’s the spirit babygirl.” Wynonna encouraged with empty confidence, not believing even for a minute for that to be true. “But first lets go see Aunt Gus shall we? That old bird would ring my neck if I didn’t get you to her first.” 

“Of course.” Waverly smiled. 

——

Old blue rolled down Waverly’s own personal memory lane, an old unpacked dirty drive that whined between clean cut pastures and ended at the side of an old wooden cabin that sat poised before a stillwater pond. Cows roamed the open pastures beyond the Earp Homestead as they’d always done as far back as Waverly could remember. 

The cattle business. 

Probably the only thing that actually made her daddy happy during her childhood. Happy, and fightin’ mad. Of course, Wynonna and Waverly had a way of making him fightin’ mad as well. Although she never could find an answer as to why but luckily these days she had figured out how to quit looking for it. Something she was able to do as soon as she left, a little something that would always justify her leaving even when everything in her tried to tell her she had been wrong. 

Waverly shook herself from her memories as the truck came to a rolling stop along the graveled parking spot next to the house.

“You ready?” Wynonna inquired. 

“As I’ll ever be I guess.” 

Waverly took a deep breath before she opened the door and stepped out of the truck, her boot landing in a large mud puddle and the red clay coming up to cover the leather material just as she put her foot down. 

“Fucking great.” Waverly cursed as she picked her leg up, shaking her foot and slinging mud everywhere in an effort to clean herself off. 

“I guess you can take the country out of the girl after all huh?” Wynonna quipped as she carried waverly’s bag over to the rickety porch, old wood creaking under the weight of the heavy bag. “You use to sit out here in the driveway and make mud pies for hours with Ni-..” Wynonna trailed off cautiously as Waverly eyed her. . “Anyways, now you can't even handle a little mud on your boots?”

“I can handle a little mud on my boots Wynonna,” Waverly defended as she hobbled on one leg and pulled her boot off. “I just can’t handle mud on these boots. They are Louis Vuitton you know.” 

Wynonna looked at Waverly dumbfoundedly, like Waverly had grown two heads right in front of her own eyes. 

“Who are you and what have you done with Waverly?” 

“What-“ Waverly tried before the slamming of the screen door against the frame of the house made both women jump. 

“Waverly Earp, I’ve been standing by that front door for the past forty five minutes waiting on you to get here and I won’t let you waste another one of my minutes so you can stand out here and squabble with your sister like y’all are still a bunch of school girls.” 

Waverly and Wynonna looked sheepishly over to the older woman, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. Her softly wrinkled face holding a stern expression that the sisters had held the gaze of many times before, one that could strike the fear of God himself into their hearts every time she caught them stealing tomatoes out of her garden or dirtying up their school clothes in the dirt drive out front. 

“We’re sorry Aunt Gus.” They girls apologized simultaneously, in a repeated singsong way they had made practice perfect over the years. 

The grey haired woman immediately softened, smile etching across her face as her arms dropped gingerly down to her sides. 

“Now get over here and give your Aunt Gus a hug babygirl.” She instructed, Waverly immediately walking over and wrapping herself into the arms of the only mother she’d ever known. She buried her face deep into the woman’s shoulder, breathing in her heady scent that smelled of fresh fertilizer and whatever she was currently cooking for lunch. Pork chops, maybe. 

“We’ve missed you so much.” Gus squeezed her tightly and rocked her back and forth. 

“What about me?” Wynonna called out from behind as she noisily drug waverly bag across the porch. “I was only gone all morning.” 

“Yeah and I wish you would have stayed gone a little longer.” Gus rolled her eyes, finally releasing Waverly who smiled at the two women's common repertoire. 

“You would die.”

“Of happiness.” Gus mumbled, smiling at Waverly as the three made their way into the kitchen. 

Waverly pauses in the doorway, eyes scanning her surroundings as memories of her childhood played like simultaneously holographic pictures around the room. A small brunette girl running passed her and into the kitchen as a raven haired child flew by after her, mouth moving in a shout as the other girl just smiled happily. 

It’s as if time had stood still since she’d left, everything in the same place as before. Logic would tell her that her Aunt Gus was an old woman just stuck in her ways but Waverly would argue that for every ten years in the real world, only one passed in the town of Purgatory. 

Before her lay a picture that would have been in an issue of Southern Living….65 years ago. Her Aunt Gus busily flipped a pork chop in her cast iron as Wynonna poured a couple of glasses of lemonade at the wooden kitchen table. A rooster clock on the wall striking twelve with a cluck and calling everyone to lunch. Fresh flowers sat in a vase on the middle of the window seal above the kitchen sink, the glass panes looking out over the pond in the backyard. Family pictures littered the walls leading into the living room where the same ancient furniture sat collecting years of dust. 

“Girl I know it has been a while but you don’t have to be invited to have a seat at your own kitchen table.” Gus joked as she sat down a basket of biscuits where Wynonna sat at the table, both women watching as Waverly traveled through her own mind. “You hungry?” 

“Your kitchen table Gus.” Waverly corrected lightly as she pulled up a wicker chair across from her sister, both sitting in what had always been their spots at the table growing up. “Of course, but even if I wasn’t you know I’d never be able to turn down your home cooking Aunt Gus.” 

“Suck up.” Wynonna grumbled as she stuffed a biscuit in her mouth, Gus swatting her lighting with her towel as she sat down at the head of the table between the two Earp sisters. 

Waverly put a heaping helping of butter beans onto her plate before handing them off to Wynonna and taking the mashed potatoes from her. She filled her plate to the brim with potatoes, butter beans, and biscuits because if there was one thing you couldn’t get in New York, it was her Aunt Gus’s real southern cooking. 

Waverly gazed to the other side of the table, taking in two empty chairs that usually held other people during her flashbacks to life in Purgatory. One for her Uncle Curtis and one for Ni-

“It’s never got to be a normal feeling.” Gus spoke, all three women taking somber at the empty seat on the other end of the table. 

“You’d have to stop missing him for it to be one.” Waverly gave her hand an assuring squeeze. “And that would never happen.”

Gus gave her a watery smile before clearing her throat and digging into her porkchop.

“I just can’t believe you’re here Waverly.” Gus said as she stuffed a fork full of meat into her mouth. “I’ve only been trying to get you down here for the passed eight years. I should have known the only person who could pull it off would be Ni-“

“First of all,” waverly stopped her abruptly from what she knew Gus was going to insinuate because it seemed like she was the only person who could get passed that relationship. “She didn’t bring me down here” she corrected as the other two women eyed each other knowingly. “And second, you guys act like you never see me. I fly y’all out all the time.” 

“Well sweetie I know, but it’s not the same.” Gus carefully corrected. “Having you here in Purgatory, having you home, it just feels different. 

Waverly smiled weakly in response, guilt threatening to swallow her. She had thought about coming home countless times before but had just not. She hadn’t made time for it and if she was being honest with herself she hadn’t even tried to find the time. She hadn’t had even the slightest incline in wanting to come home. The idea of facing ...so many…. memories had been too daunting. Maybe that had made her a coward but out of site and out of mind was Waverly’s m-o for the past eight years and it had worked successfully. 

Until it couldn’t anymore. 

“Plus, trying to get this crazy old bird to sit calmly on a plane for 5 hours is like pulling teeth.” Wynonna chimed in with a mouth full of potatoes. 

“I can’t help it. Something that heavy shouldn’t be so high in the sky. That just doesn’t make good sense.” Gus retorted, making the sister bust out in laughter at the older woman’s backwards way of thinking. 

“I’ve done told you woman. It’s all about aerodynamics.” Wynonna said pointedly as she shook her biscuit in Gus’s direction. 

“I don’t know nothing about that. All I know is if that thing falls, we’re going down in a flying heap.” 

Waverly soaking in the moment as the pair argued back and forth about what Wynonna believed to be the science behind planes. She had missed this and if she was being honest it did feel good to be back in the homestead having this conversation instead of sitting around her own kitchen table in her cramped New York apartment. 

“So Waverly, how's the city boy?” Wynonna inquires, Waverly rolling her eyes at the ever so coined nickname Wynonna had instantly given her boyfriend. 

Correction, fiancé. 

She looked down at the large rock on her ring finger, blushing lightly as a smile crept onto her face. 

“Perfect of course.” Waverly answered brightly. 

“Bleh, gross” Wynonna faked gagged, Gus popping her on the shoulder in response. 

“Shut it girl.” She instructed. “Don’t listen to her babygirl. She’s just jealous she never got that ole Henry boy to actually settle down and make an honest woman of her.” 

“And thank god for that.” Wynonna said as she shook her fork at Waverly. 

“So have you two set a date yet?” Gus asked. “I need to make sure I actually get to attend this one.” She side eyed Waverly who shrunk a little under her gaze. 

“We, uh, we haven’t actually. He wanted to wait until everything was ...finalized I guess you could say.”

“Well I can’t say I blame him there. I don’t think I’d want to marry a woman in your situation either.” She joked. “Speaking of, how do you plan on handling that? It sure has been a long time to have been carrying that monkey on your back.Honestly I don’t see how it went on for as long as it did.”

“That’s a mystery to me and you.” Waverly agreed. “But it’s been enough of this mess. I came here to get what I need and come hell or high water I’m not leaving without it.” Waverly checked her phone, taking note of the time before she quickly wiped her hands on her napkin and threw it on her plate. 

“Speaking of, I think it’s about time I saw about that monkey. Sooner rather than later right?” Waverly announced as she stood from the table. “Wynonna I’m going to make a quick phone call and then you and I are going to go see about my…monkey. I’m sure you know where to find it.” She excused herself from the table, exiting the house from the back door and walking onto the dock that lays over the pond. 

“Where to find... Wait she doesn’t know about-“ Gus asked with confusion before Wynonna interrupted her. 

“I may have never thought you tell her.” Wynonna shrugged innocently. 

“Wynonna, damn it.” Gus sighed, biting her head into their hands. 

“What?!” Wynonna defended. “Look in my defense she was so adamant about never coming back to Purgatory I figured I’d never have to worry about it.” 

“Well needless to say, but I think she’s about to find ‘her solution’ sooner rather than later after all.” 

“You mean?” 

“Oh yeah” Gus answered as she pointed a single finger toward the ceiling. 

—-

Waverly scrolled down her phone, hitting the screen as she wondered aimlessly onto the dock of the pond. She tousled her hair as the phone rang before her picture shrunk into a small frame in the corner. A bright, almost overly white smile lit up the screen as the man came into a larger view on the screen. 

“Hey babe” Champ greeted excitedly. “How was the ride? Did you make it?” 

“I did sweetie. I missed you of course but I got here maybe an hour or so ago.” Waverly quipped. 

“Aw I miss you too.” Champ fake pouted. “Well show me around, I want to see the famous Earp homestead you seem so keen on keeping secret.” 

Waverly turned the camera around and scanned the horizon of the land, the sun high in the midday sky and brightening everything around them. 

“Wow that’s beautiful.” Champ exclaimed as Waverly turned him back towards her. “Hey maybe after everything is done I can fly down and we can get married right on the dock of that pond.” 

“Eh, I don’t think so.” Waverly retorted. 

“How’s that.. situation?” Champ inquired. 

“I will be handling that as soon as I’m done with you.” Waverly said determinedly. 

“Don’t let her give you a hard time or get you all worked up.” 

“Oh don’t you worry baby, Waverly Earp is here to handle business and no one is going to get in my way.” She boasted. 

“That’s my girl. Well I love you babe, I’ve got to get back to work. Call me later.” 

“Love you!” Waverly blew kisses into the phone and with that it went black. She took a puzzled look at the phone, a lean reflection positioned on the black screen above her head. 

“What the-“ she mumbled as she looked closer. 

“Well I’ll be a horse’s ass” The voice rang out, the all too familiar tone making Waverly’s stomach drop as she slowly turned around to face the house.

Waverly looked up to the roof to where the owner of the voice stood holding a hammer in one hand and a shingle in the other. Bright red hair illuminated by the sun sat shoulder length above a signature black t shirt with the sleeves rolled up. A ghost of her past looking back at her just the same as she’d left it, all the way down to the leather brim hat on her head. She aimlessly stumbled back a few steps as she raked her eyes up and down the redhead’s body, dizzy drinking in the way her tan Wrangler work pants hugged her legs in the same way they did all those years ago when she’d unshamlessly gawk over the redhead while she watched her wrestle calves time and time again on the Earp farm. She watched as she pulled her hat up, racking her hands through her sweaty hair and pushing it back with a familiarity that brought Waverly a comfort she adamantly refused to feel. 

“I thought my eyes had deceived me for a moment. How you been Mrs. Haught?” 

Nicole asked with a sly dimpled grin that found Waverly teetering backwards and landing in the pond with a splash.

Waverly let the warm surface water sink her deeper into the cool underbirth of the pond, taking solace in an eerie sense of peaceful silence that only comes along with diving underwater. 

Or in her case, falling. 

Waverly held herself beneath the water for a moment, knowing that returning to the surface, while inevitable, was not something that she yearned to rush. If she could somehow sprout gills and live in the murky Earp water as a mysterious pond witch she may would do just that in that moment. 

Nicole watched as bubbles arose at the surface of the pond between ripples that glided across the once glossy surface. She let out a shaky breath, looking around to assure herself she wasn’t just living in a bad nightmare. She hadn’t known when she’d awoken that morning and climbed upon Gus’s roof to fix her missing shingles that she’d be looking down on her estranged ex…maybe still current...wife in, of all places, Gus’s backyard. In purgatory. Doing, of all things, talking about her to, of all people, her new fiancé. Had she known that’s what she’d be facing she would have certainly strapped herself down with a safety harness. 

It had been nearly 8 long years since Nicole had lastly laid eyes on the person she at one point couldn’t take her eyes off of. She remembers it like it was yesterday, watching Waverly give her one final glance over her shoulder before she closed the door and shut a chapter on their lives that was meant to be forever. Nicole has spent countless nights conjuring up what she had hoped she was seeing, which was regret in Waverly’s eyes. Regret might there was still something that could be done, time to fix the mess they had both created. Time had stood still as she’d attempted to cement her feet into her wooden floor to prevent herself from chasing after the woman, only being able to stare down at the papers Waverly had left behind, ones that lay tauntingly on the coffee table. 

Ones that held the other woman’s signature in fresh ink. 

Ones she had promised she’d sign and mail to her in New York. 

Ones she couldn't stomach to look at at the time so she threw them in a drawer in her house. 

Ones that stayed in that draw for the next 8 years. 

Ones that just never seemed quite right to sign. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

Honestly she hadn’t meant to never sign them, life had just progressed so quickly after the brunette left that she … forgot? Which may have been conveniently so if she’s being honest. 

The first time Waverly called to give her a “friendly reminder” of signing the papers Nicole had not done it for lack of time and thought, forgetting quickly behind the mounds of other things that were nearly forced upon her. 

The fourth time Waverly called with a not so friendly reminder to hurry up the process, she’d not done it out of pure spite. She’s spent a lot of life listening to Waverly’s Earp, happily so even. She didn’t feel like she had to do it anymore.

And now here they were, 8 years later. 

Still married. 

Nicole could only laugh to herself as a wet headed Waverly resurfaced from the dark waters, wearing the same pissed off look she’d worn for Nicole time and time again. 

“Ahhh!” Waverly screamed, slapping the water with her hands in frustration before she combed her hair from her face. “What the hell are you even doing here?!“

Gus and Wynonna burst through the back door at the sound of Waverly’s shriek, coming to a sliding halt as they laid eyes on the flustered youngest Earp floating about in the pond. 

“Well I guess she found out about-” 

“Nicole? What the hell is she even doing here Gus?” She questioned the frozen pair expectantly. 

“Well Waves, I may have forgotten to mention that she-“ Wynonna attempted before Waverly cut her off. 

“Still works here? Yeah, I see that now. Probably should have mentioned my ex wife-“ 

“Current wife!” Nicole called out over her. 

“Ex wife!” Waverly shouted back. “That my ex wife was on the roof the entire time we ate lunch.” 

“Didn’t really see the right time to bring it up.” Gus shrugged sheepishly. 

“Literally any time Gus! Any one moment would have worked!” Waverly struggled to pull herself up the dock, registering the vague laughter coming from above her as her arms flopped and she fell back down into the water. “Wynonna! A little help here!” 

“Right, sorry” Wynonna hurried over and helped pull Waverly onto the dock. The brunette shivered at the way a slight breeze hit her soaked skin, her clothes sticking to her tightly and molding to her body. 

Nicole whistled a cat call from above, wiggling her eyebrows when Waverly looked at her with a menacing growl. 

“Damn girl, you still are the prettiest thing to ever grace this side of the Mississippi ain’t ya?” 

“Hey!” Wynonna called out in offense. 

Waverly hated the way her cheeks warmed and she thanked God she was already so flustered that she couldn’t carry a blush. Heaven forbid she give Nicole the satisfaction of knowing she could still have an effect on her. 

“Well, besides me of course.” Nicole chuckled, making Waverly roll her eyes with a scoff. “I guess if I ever ventured out west you could hold the title.”

“Yeah right, like you’d ever venture out of Purgatory.” 

“Actually Waves she di..”

“Nah she’s right Wynonna,” Nicole waved her off as her face became hard fixed. “Waverly’s right. But you see darlin, who would have been around to help out around the farm after you took off?” 

Waverly clenched her jaw tightly, balling her fist at her sides as anger bloomed in her chest. 

So much for not letting Nicole get to her. 

“I’m pretty sure my sister can run our family farm just fine thank you!” 

“Oh is that why I’m up on the roof then?” Nicole grinned sarcastically. “Wynonna get your lazy ass up here and fix these shingles. Hell its too hot to be up here anyways.” 

Waverly lightened quickly as she noticed her opportunity, Nicole stuck on a roof with nowhere to go. For eight years she’d tried to force Nicole to listen to her and now, the redhead really didn’t have another option. 

“Actually Nicole, you should stay up there. I’ve got a few things we need to discuss.” 

Nicole cursed under her breath, looking around and realizing Waverly had her a bit cornered. 

Gus watched the foolish pair shout at one another as Wynonna retreated into the house, coming back out with two opened beers before shoving one into her hand.

“Shall we?” Wynonna prompted towards the porch chairs. 

“Hell why not? My soaps aren’t on for another hour anyways.” Gus agreed as she clinked her bottle against Wynonna’s before they both flopped down into a chair and kicked their feet up onto the wooden railing. 

“I..don’t know, I think there’s a statue of limitation on how long I’ve got to listen to your bitchin’ darlin’ and I believe it’s somewhere around seven years.” Nicole quipped as she clapped her hands together. “You were pretty close though. Maybe you should have came to Christmas last year.” 

“Hell it’s not like you ever listened to it in the first place!” Waverly screamed as she waved her arms in Nicole’s direction. 

“Well after a certain amount of time a person just learns to tune out all that damn screechin’” 

“You know what you-“ waverly started, stopping and taking a deep breath in an effort to collect herself. 

Nicole Haught was not supposed to be getting to her. 

“Nicole I didn’t come here for this back and forth bullshit. You know what I’m here for!” 

“For Purgatory’s Annual Watermelon Festival? Are you back for a third try at the crown? I don’t think Stephanie Jones is running this year so you probably got a chance.” Nicole smirked, purposely digging deeper at Waverly in an effort to get under her skin. 

“Yikes.” Wynonna cringed. 

“That’ll cost ya.” Gus hummed. 

Waverly’s mouth fell open agaped, the tips of her ears turning bright red as she seethed at the look the redhead wore. 

Definitely forget about Nicole Haught getting to her. 

Waverly knew what Nicole was trying to do, bringing up one of her adolescent microaggressions which was trying, and failing two times, to beat Stephanie Jones in the Ms. Purgatory pageant. She had spent so many countless nights rehearsing her talents, practicing her questions, tousling her hair only to be beat by the blonde bombshell repeatedly. Eventually Gus has made her give it up, Waverly becoming almost sickly obsessed with winning the damn thing just out of sheer spite. 

Nicole was definitely pulling out all the stops to piss her off. 

That’s just the thing though, try Nicole did to get under her skin and succeed Nicole did as well. It’s something the redhead had a way of doing like no one else could, a way that did indeed drive her completely mad. 

“That’s it.” Waverly announced with finality, making Nicole smile in triumph as the brunette moved to the base of the ladder. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Nicole quirked an eyebrow as the brunette began to stalk up the steel ladder. 

“What the hell does it look like I’m doing you idiot? I’m coming up.” Waverly answered as her knees wobbled against the metal. 

“Uh, Wynonna, you might want to get your sister before she falls off this damned thing and breaks her neck” Nicole watched with wide, panicked eyes as Waverly got closer and the ladder swayed a bit more. 

“I wish someone would push me off a ladder right about now.” Wynonna mumbled. 

“You and me both.” Gus agreed. 

Waverly planted her hand on the sun heated roof, gripping the shingles as she lifted herself further up with unsure legs. She was half way on the roof, top half of her body on and bottom half off, when she felt the ladder slip and fall out from under her. The metal contraption landed on the porch deck with a clatter. Waverly paused with panic for a moment before squealing loudly as part of her body sat positioned on the roof with her feet dangling into the free air below her. 

“Shit!”

Nicole quickly rushed over and grabbed Waverly’s arm, struggling to tug her up as the brunette gripped her hands tightly. Her eyes pleading with Nicole for help. 

“I got you Waves, don’t worry.” Nicole assured her as she gave one last tug and pulled Waverly up, the smaller girl landing squarely on top of Nicole as they fell back onto the rooftop. 

Waverly’s laid there, chest heaving against a hard body as she fought to drop her adrenaline and catch her breath. She felt Nicole’s do the same, her tone stomach pushing up into her ever so often. 

“Well it sure didn’t take you two very long to fall right back into each other…. literally.” Wynonna deadpanned, slapping her knee at the joke only she thought was funny. 

The pair immediately scrambled, Waverly quickly pushing herself off Nicole as the redhead slithered out from beneath her. They side glanced quickly at one another, avoiding eye contact at all cost as a blush crept up both of their faces. 

Waverly cleared her throat as Nicole combed her hair back down and returned her hat back to her head. 

“Uh, tha.. thanks.” Waverly stammered, almost nervously even though she was unsure why. This was only the woman she’d been married to for two.. technically eight… long years. Waverly felt her frustration began to slip as Nicole smiled a charmed grin at her, dimples popping in a way that used to melt Waverly faster than a July Purgatory sun. The same smile that Nicole knew could dig her out of whatever trouble she may have found herself in with the brunette, the same one she had flashed for Waverly after the brunette had caught her kissing Stephanie Jones behind the school building when they were 14. Of course they hadn’t been together then, but Waverly had quickly discovered her own green eyed monster and had cursed Nicole to the high heavens. At that moment she’d not been sure she’d ever been that mad. However Nicole had had her gleaming about an hour later. 

All with that stupid chargined grin. 

“You always were falling for me Waverly Earp. I guess some things never change.” 

Well until she opened her mouth of course. 

“Ha. Ha” Waverly scoffed. “Trust me Nicole Haught, that’s one mistake I’ll never make again. I’ve only been trying to fix the first one for the past decade. Speaking of,” Waverly instructed. “It’s time we get this done and over with, officially Nicole. I know you obviously want to hold on to me for as long as you can, I mean I would too.” Waverly said confidently and she headed towards the edge of the roof. “But you’ve got to let it go. I’ve got many things to attend to so I say we get down from here and.. wait, how do we get down from here?” 

Nicole chuckled lightly, shaking her head at the sheer gusto of the other woman. Some things you can’t change she reckoned because that’s definitely one thing Waverly Earp had always had, a can do, and will do attitude. Nobody told Waverly no and nobody turned her away when she was on a mission. 

Well, except for Nicole. 

Nicole stalked up behind Waverly, retrieving her hat from her head and tossing it gingerly off the side. The wind caught the fanned tips and brought it to a soft resting spot on the plush green grass beside the porch. 

“Perfect.” She quipped as she began to stalk towards the back of the house top, sitting down before she yanked her boots off and tossed them over the side past Waverly’s head. 

The brunette turned around as a brown flash whizzed by her head and landed on the ground with a thud. She watched as Nicole stood up and pulled her t-shirt over her head, tossing it past her as well. Her eyes lingered over Nicole clad in only a black sports bra, toned abs gleaming with sweat under the sweltering sun. 

“Wh..Uh, What are you doing?” Waverly stammered as she looked anywhere but where her eyes so earnestly wanted to gaze. 

“Well the way I sees it, sweetie. In order to get down off this roof and get you what you want, there’s only one way down.” Nicole sighed, eyes lingering over the edge of the roof as what she meant clicked in Waverly’s head. 

“You think she’s gonna?” Wynonna asked, peaking over the rails of the porch. 

“Not a chance.” Gus took a sip of her beer as she shook her head. 

“No” she shook her head adamantly, hands clamped on her hips in protest. “No, no, no. I’m not doing it. You know how I feel about that.”

“What other option you got Waverly? Wynonna gone help you?” Nicole eyed her knowingly, the pair both knowing that there’s no way Wynonna would get Waverly out of the only opportunity she’s ever had to make her sister jump off the roof. They had tried time and time again throughout the years, jumping off themselves multiple times in an attempt to get Waverly to do it just once. She would never budge on it though. 

Back in the day they could talk Waverly into just about any one of their shenanigans, Nicole would sweet talk her with that stupid southern charm and the next thing Waverly knew she’d be rolling down the Nedley’s grass hillside that lead them right to an angry faced Gus as they came trudging back into the yard covered in grass stains and Mrs. Nedley’s ripe garden tomatoes. Every switch whipping and stern talking to never mattered though because Nicole and Wynonna would have her right back out doing something else they all knew they shouldn’t be doing. 

Not the roof though. Never the roof. 

“It’s dangerous Nicole!” 

“I know. I broke my arm jumping off this thing for you when we were little, scars to prove it remember?” Nicole held her arm out to the brunette, two small white scars brandishing her lower forearm and writing a memory neither woman could ever forget. 

“You didn’t jump off-.. you know what? I’m not.” Waverly cut her own self off, refusing to fall into Nicole’s trap. They had only had this same argument a hundred times before and as stubborn as Waverly wanted to say Nicole was, she was just the same. Not that either of them could see it though. 

“Well I suggest you get to hollerin in hopes someone hears you then because I’m not staying up here all day just because you’re a wuse. Wynonna!” Nicole called out loudly. 

“Yeah?” 

“What you thinkin’? Cannonball?” Nicole asked. 

“Nicole don’t!” Waverly said assertively.

“I’m thinking a front flip Haughtshot!” Wynonna called back from beneath them. 

“What you worried about Waves? It ain’t in sickness and health anymore remember? So you ain’t gotta worry bout me” Nicole shrugged, looking intently at Waverly as the brunette sat silent. “Front flip it is!” 

With that Nicole backed up a few steps and raked her hair back with her hands. She got a running start and headed towards the edge of the porch. She flung herself off, tucking her legs into her chest experitely as she turned her body forward. 

Waverly cringed, closing her eyes and turning away from where the redhead had just jumped. She had watched her do it time and time again and she knew Nicole would clear the dock by a mile but she couldn’t help her nearly instinctive reaction to watching her do it. Images of a small adolescent Nicole banging into the side of the dock when she just barely missed the water’s edge as a child always played through her mind. Matter of fact that’s probably why she could never muster up the courage to do it herself. 

But instead of a hard thud, Waverly opened her eyes at the unmistakable sound of water splashing loudly beneath her. Of course Nicole had made it, she always made it because chance would always have it that the only time she didn’t make it iwas when she called herself jumping for Waverly. 

Nicole popped up out of the water with a holler, laughing playfully as she swam to the edge of the dock and put her arms up on the water soaked wood. 

“What y’all think? Perfect ten?” 

“Maybe a 9. Your landing was a little crooked.” Gus smirked. 

“Hell you always were the harshest critic woman. One day I’ll get a perfect ten outta ya though.” Nicole smiled as she pulled herself up onto the dock, shaking her hair wildly like a dog as water hit the dock in small freckles around her. 

“Hey I’m just calling it how I see it.” 

“Yeah, yeah” Nicole waved her off, using her hand to shield the sun from her eyes as she looked up to where Waverly peaked over the house’s edge. “Alright Earp. It’s all you. Let’s see what you got.” 

Waverly teetered over the edge, looking down at the ever growing distance between herself and the ground. Her stomach swirled with nausea at the prospect of maybe actually having to jump.

“I’m not doing it!” She protested loudly, crossing her arms over her chest like a toddler as she scrambled back safely onto the roof. 

“Guess you’ll be up there all day then. Maybe Wynonna will throw you up some sunscreen!” Nicole barked. 

Waverly scurried back over the edge as she watched Nicole pull her t shirt back over her head. 

“Nicole Raleigh Haught you get back here!” Waverly warned as Nicole tossed her hat back on her head. “Don’t you dare walk away from me and leave me stranded up here.” 

“That’s the good thing about being dee-vorced there darlin, you can’t tell me what to do anymore. Plus, we both know leaving will always be your thing Waves.” Nicole said with an empty grin as she gave Waverly one final look and disappeared from view. 

“I’ll be back to finish later Gus.” She added as she passed through the screen door and walked into the house. She took a deep breath once inside, shuddering as the cool indoor air hit her body and her smile faltered from her face. Her quick witted resolve fell as she reached for her keys that hung by the door. 

“Ya alright?” Gus questioned softly as Nicole paused at the front door. 

“Yeah I’m fine.” Nicole answered somberly, holding Gus’s gaze as the gray haired woman looked at her sympathetically. “Look we all knew she’d have to come for it eventually.” 

“Yeah I know.” Gus agreed as she patted Nicole on the shoulder. “You know I just worry about y’all two.” 

“I know Gus but there’s no need to.” Nicole smiled faintly. “Ain’t anymore hurtin to be had on my part.”

“But you still ain’t going to give in that easy are ya?” Gus chuckled. 

“I wouldn’t be me if I did now would I?” Nicole beamed, tipping her hat at Gus before walking out the door and climbing in her truck. 

Gus watched her with concern as she listened to Waverly scream at Wynonna to get her the ladder. Gus has watched those two grow from bickering childhood friends to bickering childlike adults. They had never done anything easy, nor could they have if they had had the chance but damn if they didn’t have a hankerin for making a mess of things. Gus had always attributed that to them trying to fill a book with a story that may never be over. 

“I sure do hope you’re right.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man, I’m blown away with the response to this silly story I thought only I would enjoy. I’m happy to come here with the second chapter. Not much Wayhaught in this one but we’ve got some old friends, some uh... sisterly bonding..., and a whole lot of angst. 
> 
> Side note: all mistakes are mine. I write and edit all of my own stuff so it’s really hard to catch mistakes with my brain reading how I intended. I hate reading my work months later and seeing mistakes so I apologize to you all. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Waverly rung her wet hair out with the towel as she retreated back into the bedroom where Wynonna lay perched on the bed with a book in hand. 

“Fifty Shades of Grey? Really Wynonna?” Waverly remarked with judgement as she stopped at her vanity and grabbed her brush. 

“What?” Wynonna defended as she tossed the book back onto the bed. “There’s nothing wrong with a little romance and a hint of BDSM.”

“More like a hint of romance to go along with 300 pages of BDSM.” 

“Hey don’t kink shame, we all have our own.” She retorted as Waverly brushed the tangles free from her hair. “Some people like to be tied up and spanked and some people have a redhead fetish so one shall not judge.” Wynonna poked. 

“Having one redheaded ex does not constitute me having a fetish.” Waverly rolled her eyes in response. 

“Okay then you just have a fetish for one particular redhead.”

“I don’t think fetish is being used in the right context here and even if it was I would not have one for Nicole.” 

“Yeah you're right” Wynonna agreed. “I only had to hear you talk about her nonstop everyday since the first time she came over for a playdate when we were seven.” 

“It was not everyday.” Waverly argued weakly as she pulled a short crop top over her head. Really she knew there was no point, Wynonna was right. From the first time a seven year old bucktooth Nicole had stepped foot in the Earp Homestead with an ole cane pole for fishing, Waverly had been completely mesmerized. Even though at the time Wynonna had been adamant about not having her little sister tag along behind her Nicole had always made it a point to include Waverly. If she was being honest Nicole was probably the first person to make Waverly feel seen. Maybe that’s why Waverly couldn’t stop talking about Nicole, thinking about Nicole at the time. 

Nicole had been the first person to make Waverly feel like she actually mattered. 

“You could have told me she still worked here ya know?” She said as she looked at Wynonna through the mirrored reflection.

“Well it’s not like you ever let me bring her up.” 

“What do you mean?” Waverly questioned, pausing from applying her eyeliner as she gave Wynonna a puzzled look.

“Every time I bring her up you always find a way to change the subject so I just quit trying.” Wynonna cautioned as she mindlessly played with the tassels of a throw pillow. Wynonna always avoided the topic of Nicole, which was hard to do with the redhead still being such a major part of her life. Back in the day she nearly grew to wishing she was deaf because she was so sick of hearing about the redhead. However now she felt that not hearing Waverly talk about her might be worse than the nonstop lovey dicey bullshit. Despite it always being odd to Wynonna that her best friend ended up with her little sister, she had always been their biggest fan. Even if they did think she’d hate it. 

“Well that’s just not true.” Waverly rolled her eyes as she continued her task, choosing not to argue against Wynonna’s accusations. Mostly because she knew them to be true. Of course it hurt to talk about Nicole, it felt like pushing against a locked box she’d desperately tried to keep hidden away. She’d always been scared to unpack it, scared of what she may pull out once she started because somethings you can’t push back in. Maybe that’s why she’d let the divorce situation sit as long as it had. 

Out of sight, out of mind. 

That was always easier than the alternative, actually facing your problems. In fact that’s why she never came home, because of how heavy it would be to hold the weight of the memories Purgatory carried. She glanced up into the corner of the vanity, an old Polaroid picture faded by the sun sat stuck in the corner. She reached up towards it, hand hovering before she pulled it down. She turned it over in her hand, emotions weltering into her chest as her own self stared back at her. 

In the picture sat a young bright eyed Waverly, smile stretching so far across her face her eyes crinkled in the corners. She was leaning against an equally bright eyed and bushy tailed Nicole, the redhead’s arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Waverly remembered the day clearly, the first time Nicole had told her she loved her. Both of their cheeks painted with the sun they’d gotten that day while swimming around Jasoer County Creek. Waverly hadn’t been expecting it at all, wrapped up in Nicole while they kissed under the falls. She remembered thinkin how she might have been waitin her whole life to hear that from Nicole. Waverly had never felt so full. 

However times were different then, the world hadn’t smacked them in the face. That was when Waverly has been young and naive and really believed that would be enough. 

She quickly blinked back tears, trying to keep her emotions at bay as she tossed the picture into the trash by the vanity.

“Wynonna can I hold your phone? I need to call Champ.” 

Because of course hers was at the bottom of the Earp Pond, probably sitting in a catfish hole by now. 

That seemed like a more accurate description of what life with Nicole had really been like. Well, married life at least. 

“Sorry baby girl, mine’s busted too.” 

Waverly sighed heavily. Wynonna’s phone being busted only meant one thing. 

“We could go to town for you to use one there. Plus, it’s about time to start drinkin anyways. Whatta say?” 

Of course they’d have to go to town, curse Gus and her backwoods way of thinking about cell phones. 

“Do I really have a choice?” Waverly quipped as she grabbed her coat and headed for the front door. 

“Not at all.” Wynonna followed, pausing as she caught sight of a picture in the trash. She pulled it out, looking in the direction of Waverly with saddened eyes. 

“Ya comin or not?” The brunette called out. 

Wynonna shook the picture in her hand, contemplating something before she stuck it in her jacket pocket. 

“Comin!” She called out before running out of the room. 

——-

Shorty’s Saloon. 

The lone watering hole in all of Purgatory, one that could definitely attract all kinds of ...animals. 

Waverly strolled in behind Wynonna, pushing through the heavy wooden doors as the musk of cigars, hops, and cheap whiskey slammed into her face. Everything looked the same, maybe the pool tables had been applied with new felt but outside of that everything looked the exact same. Especially the crowds of people standing in nearly every corner. She recognized nearly all of them, ten years of age altering most of their faces. While the sign at the start of town may not have held truth for her it definitely held it for most others. In fact Waverly had probably been one of the only original Purgatory residents that had actually left, and it definitely showed. 

The crowd quieted as the pair of girls pushed through the masses, wide eyes watching them as they plopped down on a couple of bar stools. Waverly’s shrunk down under the gazes, looking around quickly until her eyes caught an unmistakable flash of red. 

Great. 

Nicole stood in the corner of the bar, propped up beside a pool stick as she took a long sip of beer and stared right back at Waverly. She gave her a cocky grin as Waverly returned it with her deepest scowl. She could only chuckle at the brunette’s weak attempt at intimidation, ones that may have made every other resident of Purgatory back down but Nicole knew there wasn’t truly a scary bone in Waverly’s body. Well, unless she’s jealous. Now that Nicole had seen first hand time and time again and it still sent a shiver down her spine. She had a jealous streak mean as a Copperhead snake. Of course Waverly would never admit that. Nicole had known though, from the day the three of them had played wedding and Waverly’s couldn’t get through preaching the sermon before she was pushing Nicole’s blushing bride Wynonna into the pond. 

“Bartender!” Wynonna shouted as she tapped the bar annoyingly. 

Waverly broke off her staring contest as a familiar face came sauntering up to the sisters. 

“John Henry?” Waverly greeted with a smile, leaning over the bar and enveloping the slick black mustached cowboy into a crushing hug. There were only a handful of people Waverly called herself missing from that old town and her sister’s boyfriend, whom she never actually referred to as such, was one of them. Doc as they called him had always been an allie if hers, in fact one of the first people who knew about Waverly’s lifelong crush on Nicole. He had caught her staring longingly at the redhead one too many times and when Waverly had struggled with the idea of actually being interested in a woman, well, Doc had been the one to deliver just the advice she needed to hear. 

“What a delight it is! What brings you to town Ms…?” Doc inquired intently as he released her back to her side of the bar. The question hit Waverly in the pit of her stomach. Of course the entire town knew about their divorce. Word always did travel fast in a town that’s only got a handful of people. Of course putting divorces in the county paper every week would do the trick as well. 

“Not for much longer, but still Earp.” Waverly clarified. “And thank you for asking. I’ve just come down on some...business” 

“Is it right to assume your business is in this bar as we speak?” 

Waverly glanced over at Nicole, the redhead laughing heartily at the guy beside her. She tried to fight the warmth that bloomed in her chest at seeing a legitimately smile on the redhead’s face after all this time. She felt her face heat as a tall blonde slipped her arms around the redhead’s waist, Nicole turning and throwing an arm over the other woman with a sly smile. She grabbed the finger of whiskey Foc had placed down in front of her eyes never leaving the pie across the bar. She knew the girl, but from wh-

Stephanie Jones. 

Waverly’s grip locked on the glass in her hand as her face hardened. Of course it was Stephanie Jones because who else would it be. She always had a thing for Nicole in high school. Hell she didn’t let Waverly get out the front door of thei-Nicole’s house before she was coming in the back. 

Whatever, Nicole could do what and who she wanted to do that matter. She just didn’t understand why it had to be her.

“Uhh Waves.” Wynonna cautioned as her and Doc eyed the white knuckle grip she had on the drink in her hand. They followed her death stare gaze across the bar to where the blonde was taking Nicole’s hat from her head and placing it on her own. “Ahhh” 

“I’m just going to take that.” Doc attempted to pry the drink from the brunette’s hands until Waverly fixed her gaze on him, the cowboy quickly backing off before she downed the drink in one swig. 

“You alright there Waves?” 

“Huh?” Waverly startled, realizing the pair had been watching her. “Oh… Yes. Of-of course I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be fine? Everything is just dandy.” She said unconvincingly.

“Maybe because your ex is cuddled up with someone else across the bar?” Wynonna answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. While the pair’s relationship might not technically be her business she sure had been put into the middle of it enough to feel like she had earned her opinion on the matter and her opinion was that Nicole and Waverly skirted around one another a bit too much for her liking. 

“Wynonna don’t be silly.” Waverly gave a fake smile. “Why would I be mad? Nicole is allowed to date whomever she wants. I mean I am engaged to be married after all.” 

“Righttt.” Wynonna curtly chuckled, downing her drink and tapping her glass for another shot. 

“I mean that’s what they are doing right? Dating?” Waverly’s fished. She didn’t care, of course she didn’t, but it wouldn’t hurt to know. Nicole did know about Champ after all so why couldn’t Waverly know who Nicole was with? Everyone else in town probably already knew and Waverly wasn’t exactly everyone else. She was her ex wife. In a way, maybe she had the right to know. 

“Uhh I’m not sure.” Wynonna lied, avoiding eye contact with Waverly. 

“You’re not sure? Yeah right Wynonna. You make Nicole tell you everything.” 

“I do not!” Wynonna defended weakly. Another Waverly was right, Wynonna had only dug for information about Nicole’s everyday since she’d known her. She couldn’t help it, Waverly wasn’t the only one who found the redhead interesting. “There’s been plenty of things Nicole hasn’t told me.” 

Waverly shrunk a little in her seat as Wynonna scrutinized her. Nicole had lied to Wynonna all of one time throughout their entire lives and damn if her sister didn’t bring it up every time she got the chance. Of course it had been about Waverly which meant she had to hear about it all the time too. 

“Oh my god Wynonna. It was one time!” Waverly exclaimed. 

“Well one time too many if you’re asking me.” Wynonna mumbles into her glass and she tossed back more of the warm liquid. “Look, if you want to know something about Nicole then just ask her. I don’t want to be caught in the middle.” 

Waverly felt her agitation flare. Of course she was protecting Nicole. She’d spent so much time doing so over the past eight years that waverly really shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Still, it irked Waverly’s last nerve to not have Wynonna take her side just once. 

“To be stuck in the middle you’d have to be there in the first place, not taking sides.” Waverly barked back as her anger flared. 

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Wynonna said with sudden seriousness. The air between the sisters quickly changed, a heated debate years in the making sitting heavy between them and coiling in tight tension. They had both felt that pull, that resentment but it had been easy to avoid it while being miles apart. However being in Purgatory with the topic of the conversation standing just a few feet away made it a lot more difficult to ignore. 

“Pssh, come one Wynonna.Don’t act like you don’t know-“ 

“Is that Waverly Earp?!” A shrill voice rang out loudly from behind them, effectively tabling their argument much to Doc’s relief as he had nearly started to sweat at the raised octave of their voices. He knew all too well just how much the Earp sisters liked to pull other people into their arguments for… perspective they’d say. He’d never tell Wynonna but Waverly was right more times than not but the wrath of the smaller Earp was way less mighty than the older one. 

Waverly smiled widely as she turned to see two familiar faces standing in the door of Shorty’s wide eyed and amazed. 

“Chrissy?! Jer?!” Waverly cried out as she ran across the bar and plowed into the waiting pair.  
They wrapped her in a sandwich and embraced her tightly. Until that moment waverly had not noticed just how much she had missed her high school best friends. The trio had been near inseparable back in day. Chrissy and Waverly had been neighbor friends since childhood and as soon as Jeremy’s family moved to Purgatory and he joined them in Mrs. Johnson’s eighth grade homeroom the girl’s knew they had found the third pea to their pod. Jeremy had even been the school mascot just to hang out at cheer practice with Chrissy and Waverly. That was one of the things Waverly hated about her own induced exile from Purgatory, she had to miss two people who she considered her greatest allies. She still chuckled every time she thinks about their reaction when she finally told them about the huge crush she had on Nicole. She had been so nervous, for no good reason because when she choked up the courage to actually spit the words out they had both laughed heartily at her and told her they’d known long before she had. Not every small town resident of Purgatory had been that accepting and after seeing such a hateful side to her hometown she was eternally grateful she did not have to worry about the ones closest to her. 

“Oh my god girl! Look what the cat has drug in Jer. Can you believe this?” Chrisy exclaimed as they released the brunette and looked at her nearly starstruck. 

“Waverly, what the hell are you even doing here? What’s it been? Three, four years?” Jeremy guessed. 

“Eight actually.” Waverly said sheepishly, guilt sermounting in her chest. 

“Damn it has been eight years has it?” Jeremy remarked as the trio sat in silent remembrance. It had been a long eight years and life had happened to all of them during that time. Waverly sudden felt an awkwardness grow as each one waited for the other to speak.

“I-”

“Hey did-”

“Well this-”

They all tried at the same time before Chrissy busted out in laughter, Waverly and Jeremy chuckling lightly.

“Damn I reckon we could all use a drink? Whatta ya say?” Chrissy offered as they other two quickly nodded and followed her to a booth. 

Time seemed to grow irrelevant as the awkwardness washed away with every drink they drained and memory they shared. Waverly learned that Jeremy had left Purgatory not long after her, getting a full ride scholarship to a law school out west where he learned his law degree and met his husband Robin. They had dated for a while before he followed Jeremy back to Purgatory so the younger boy could take the job as the town’s lone lawyer. They had a son, Waverly nearly tearing up as Jeremy showed her pictures of his perfect mini me. She learned Chrissy had married her high school sweetheart Perry. They had started dating their senior year of high school and while SHeriff Nedley had given the boy hell Chrissy had been head over heels for him from their first date. She visibly remembered getting her fairshare of payback for always talking about Nicole from the time she’d called that night after he had dropped Chrissy off on her front porch and kissed her. It didn't take long for Waverl to realize why Chrissy sometimes had a glazed over look in her eyes when she would talk about Nicole. Perry worked at some place called Hotshot Bulls & Broncos training horse while Chrissy stayed home and took care of their twin boys. The more she learned the larger her heart swelled nearly bursting with pride at the success and happiness her friends had been able to find. However she stupidly couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy. Sure she had achieved success, she was an ancient arts professor at CU. She considered herself happy as well, she just hadn't been able to find either of those things in Purgatory and she could not help but envy those that could. 

“Oh my god! I’ve been so busy catching up I didn’t even see that ring!” Chrissy smiled with a dazed smile as she grabbed Waverly’s hand. She brought waverly’s hand closer to her, pulling the smaller girl nearly across the table when she shoved it in Jeremy’s face. “Do you see this thing? Holy smokes.”

“Dang girl that thing don't weigh you down?” Jeremy joked. “Where did this come from? I don’t think I realized you were engaged again.”

Waverly paused at the again before recovering quickly with a smile a little too wide to be real. 

“Well his name is Champ.” Waverly answered as she stared down her ring, the sparkle not nearly as bright as it was the day she got it. “He is actually the son of the Dean at CU which is how I met him.” Waverly remembered it clearly because she’d always found him obnoxious, crying to his mother like a man child every time he had even the slightest problem. In fact she had only accepted his proposal for a date because his mother had suggested to Waverly that she thought they;d get along. Somehow from there they had dated for two years and were engaged to get married so the Dean must have been right. “ He really is a nice guy. I will have to send y’all an invite to the wedding.”

“After missing ours, you better.” Chrissy joked, undertones of a seriousness making Waverly feel the need to apologize. She had gotten the invitation for Chrissy’s wedding but had politely declined because she and Nicole had been separated for only a short amount of time and she just could not handle it. “Don’t worry about it.” Chrissy winked, rubbing waverly's hand for reassurance as she seemingly picked up on her duress. 

“So when is the big day?” Jeremy inquired. “ I want to make sure Robin and I are clear because we are definitely not waiting another 8 years to do this.” 

“CHeers to that!” Chrissy said as they all clinked beers and took hefty sips. 

“Uh we haven't actually set a date yet.” 

“No date? Waves it has been a year. What’s the hold up?” 

Waverly couldn't help the way her eyes wandered across the bar before landing on the redhead in question who stood propped against the table with Stephanie in front of her. She leaned closer to the other woman as she whispered something in her ear that made the blonde slap her chest playfully. 

Chrissy and Jeremy followed Waverly’s fixed gaze, eyeing each other knowingly as they both grabbed Waverly’s hand. 

“I’m sorry Waves.” Jeremy said softly. 

“We still hate y’all couldnt make it work.”

Waverly shook her mind free, taking a long drink from her beer before she smiled back to the pair with confidence. “Guys it's totally fine, Nicole and I-” She side eyed the other woman as the blonde took her hat and placed it on her own head. “Nicole and I are ancient history.” 

Chrissy and Jeremy just sighed softly as they watched a picture in Waverly’s eyes that told a story contradictive to her words. 

“Well if it makes you feel any better, we still don’t like that trollip.” Chrissy barked assertively. She had listened to WEaverly complain about the other girl’s relentless flirting for her to not have a bad taste in her mouth for her. Even if it had been eight years. 

“C’mon Chris, don’t call her that. Nicole is single, Stephanie is open to do what she pleases.” Waverly defended weakly. She hated to talk bad about nearly anyone, especially other women but she would be lying if she said it didn't feel good for Chrissy to still have her back after all this time. 

“And she’s definitely been doing that.” Jeremy said. “I don't think she even waited for you to close the front door before she came waltzing in the back.”

“Jer!” Chrissy smacked the other boy on the arm. 

Waverly couldn’t help the sting that pushed its way into her chest at the declaration, her face reddening at the sheer thought of Stephanie climbing into their.. Nicole’s bed with her. 

“I’m sorry Waverly, I didn't me-”

“Jeremy its fine.” She assured him. “ Actually if you guys will excuse me I was suppose to call Champ over an hour ago and I totally forgot.”

“You sure you are okay?” Chrissy asked sincerely, knowing how prideful her best friend could be. 

“Of course.” Waverly nodded as she scooted out the booth. Her head swayed slightly as she stood from the seat, maybe she’d had more beer than she had intended. Of course she didn’t drink like she used to so she was a little out of practice. She pushed her way to the bar before requesting the phone from Doc and dialing her fiance’s number. 

“Hello” he answered harshly, throwing Waverly off guard. 

“Uh- Hey babe.” She tried cheerfully. 

“Don’t hey babe me. Where have you been Waverly? I have been trying to get in touch with you all day.”

“I know I’m sorry.” Waverly cringed. She knew she should have called earlier. “ I. uh… I dropped my phone in the pond.” She didn’t like to lie, guilty conscious and all, but Waverly more often than not found it easier to just lie to Champ than to try and argue with him. 

“Oh.” He softened immediately. “Babe you are so clumsy.”

“Yep, clumsy. That’s me.” Waverly hummed as she watched Wynonna move across the bar and towards Nicole. 

“Have you seen that bitch yet?” 

“ You know I don't like you to call her that Champ.” Waverly hardened. Nicole was a lot of things but not that and she wouldn't let anyone, even Champ disgrace her in such a way. He had learned quickly Waverly wouldn't stand for such a thing and he hated it. 

“ There you go, taking up for her again.” He scoffed. 

“I’m not taking up for her Champ but she's never done anything to me in order to be bad talked like that.”

“Just hold you hostage in a marriage for ten years.”

“It's more complicated than that Champ, I’ve already told you.” Waverly sighed. She knew champ got tired of hearing such an excuse but for once Waverly was telling him the truth. She didn’t know how else to explain it. Everything about their marriage had been complicated and it had never been as easy as sign the papers and move on with it, even with Waverly. 

“Whatever. I don’t want to spend all of our time talking about that” he said defeatedly.Most of the time he could wear Waverly down and win their arguments but he knew that was one Waverly would never back down on. 

“Goo-” waverly started until the light reflecting back onto Wynonna’s face caught her eye. She immediately felt her anger flare as she recognized where it was coming from. 

Her phone. 

“I’ve got to go Champ.” Waverly said, vaguely registering the boy’s muffled protest as she stalked across the bar towards her sister. 

Wynonna had lied. She had her phone and it worked perfectly. Why would she lie when Waverly asked her for her phone to call Champ earlier? Hurt bloomed in her chest as she realized the only logical reason. 

Nicole. 

Like nearly every time over the past 8 years Wynonna had Nicole’s back before her own sister and Waverly couldn't take it anymore. Just like Wynonna believed of Nicole Waverly hadn’t done anything wrong either. Yeah sure, she left and started a new life away from home but Wynonna couldn't fault her for that. She had mentioned doing the same thing multiple times and Waverly had offered for Wynonna to come with her but she had said no and for what?

Nicole. 

“What the fuck Wynonna?” She said harshly, the other patrons startling at her sudden outburst where she now stood rigid in front of the group she had watched earlier, jaw fixed tightly as Wynoona looked at her with a puzzled face. 

“Babygirl wh-”

“Don’t baby girl me.” Waverly crossed her arms over her chest. “I thought you said your phone was busted.” She pointed out as she eyed the clearly functioning phone in Wynonna’s hand. 

“Um, Uh it was. Or at least I thought it was.” Wynonna stammered weakly. She knew she couldn’t lie to Waverly, the brunette had a knack for picking out a story. 

“You’ve always been such a shit liar.” Waverly rolled her eyes. 

“Hey why don’t you back off.” Nicole offered, the one person Waverly definitely did not care to hear from. 

“ Why don’t you tend to your own business before you try to get into mine.” She argued, a smile breaking across Nicole's face in the same way it always had when they’d argue about something Nicole really didn't care about. She had that stereotypical red headed temper when she got pissed off enough but it always irked Waverly the way she could stay so somber with Waverly’s crazy. It didn’t do anything but make Waverly madder, which is something the pair of them had both found out after they wed. 

“Hey i'm just trying to extinguish the fire lit under your ass.” Nicole shrugged. “ I'm sure you don't remember since it's been so long since you've been here but we really try to have a relaxed atmosphere at Shorty’s. You're suppose to take any fights outback remember?.”

“I’d like to take you out back.” Waverly mumbled. 

“Oh I’m sure you would.” Nicole offered a cocky smile that, historically speaking, drove Waverly mad. In more way than one. 

“I’m sure you'd just love that. Is that why you haven't signed the divroce papers yet?” waverly pushed, saying it loud enough to invite the entire bar into their business. 

Nicole blushed briefly before she recuperate and grabbed another pool stick off the wall. 

“Tell ya what Waves.” Nicole said as she mindless turned the block of chalk on the tip of the stick. “You beat me in a game of pool shots and I’ll sign those papers tonight.” She knew the Earp could never turn down a challenge. 

Waverly smiled confidently . Throughout their years of playing it Nicole had never beaten Waverly, or wynonna, in the game. They’d shoot ball after ball into the pocket and Nicole would have to take a shot for everyone they made with the night usually ending in them dragging her out of the bar. 

“ Oh I’ll take that deal.” Waverly nodded as she snatched the stick from the redhead who could only chuckle lightly. 

“Waves I don’t know if i would” Wynonna attempted. 

“Wynonna how about you go get the shots.” Waverly instructed, absent of any emotion and avoiding eye contact with her sister. 

“Whatever. It’s your funeral.” Wynonna shrugged reluctantly as she left to retrieve the alcohol. 

“Still need the first shot?” Waverly said sarcastically not forgetting them having to give Nicole first shot for her to even get a ball in. 

“Actually, guest first.” Nicole insulted while holding Waverly’s gaze.

Waverly huffed in annoyance as she lined herself up to break the triangle, burying two balls in the corner pocket as she smiled triumphantly. 

“This is gonna be too easy.” She laughed. 

\--------

Waverly stumbled slightly as she placed the shot glass on the ever growing stack that stood on her side of the table. To say Waverly had underestimated Nicole would be a vast understatement. After Waverly had missed her ball while watching Stephanie place her hand in the backpocket of Nicole’s pants the redhead had taken her to the woodshed and back in Pool Shots and to say that Waverly was feeling it would be an even more vast understatement. Wynoon had tried to stop the massacre but with the cocky look Nicole was wearing and the crowd that had formed around the table there was no she was backing down. 

“Just one left Earp.” Nicole pointed out as she rolled her shoulders and took her place in front of the cue ball that was lined up perfectly with the 8 ball and the corner pocket. 

“It’s all you babe.” Stephanie quipped as she eyed Waverly with a smirk and placed Nicole’s hat back on her head. Waverly tried to suppress the jealous she felt at the action but with her being more than inebriated it was safe to say she was having trouble keeping anything under control. 

Including her mouth. 

“Ya, know. You’vent’t changed one bit.” She slurred as she pointed a finger in Nicole’s direction using her pool stick to hand herself upright. 

“What's that supposed to mean?” Nicole questioned as she stood back up and quirked an eyebrow at Waverly. The girl barely even knew Nicole now, much less enough to be commenting on her life decisions.

The small portion or rational Waverly that still existed tried to shut drunk Waverly up, she didn't want to make a fool of herself but damn was that bitch strong. 

“You. This.” She tried to clarify as she waved a finger between Nicole and Stephanie. 

“Waves, c’mon I think she's got you beat. Let’s go.” Wynonna attempted to throw her arms around the younger Earo before Waverly pulled away from her with a stern shake of her head. 

“Nah, no.” Waverly refuted with a shake of her head. She wasn’t a baby she could do whatever she wanted.. “ I can say what I want. I'm a grown woman.” She drunkenly reassured herself as she turned back to Nicole. “Im talking bout this, y'all. It’s funny because it’s been like 15 years and you still go after the farmer’s daughter. Get a new schtick.” 

The crowd cringed quietly as Nicole just chuckled. She reckoned, ironically so, that Waverly was technically right. Years ago she’d gone after Waverly who was a farmer’s daughter and now she did… whatever with Stephanie who was also a farmer’s daughter but Waverly had no right to comment on it. It shouldn’t matter to her anyhow. 

“What do you care anyway Earp? Jealous?” Nicole smiled with Waverly only getting more agitated at the sight. 

“Maybe I do.” waverly admitted as the redhead wide eyed her. “I mean we are still married after all. I gotta say babe, I never pegged you for an adulterer.”

The crowd sucked in a breath as the brunette stumbled closer to the redhead who was no longer smiling. Which is all Waverly wnated really, to wipe that stupid grin off Nicole’s stupid strong jawed, dimpled face. 

“Alright Waves, let’s go.” Wynonna instructed as she stepped in front of an ever growing angry Waverly. 

“Get off me Wynonna.” Waverly slurred. “Don’t make me start on you.” 

“Better listen to your sister Waves and get on outta here. This ain’t really your territory anymore.” Nicole called out as she took a shot of whiskey. 

Waverly looked around quickly head spinning at the action as she noticed the momentous amount of eyes staring back at her for the first time. She suddenly felt unwelcomed out of place in the same she had felt so many times growing up. Waverly Earp, nothing but in the way. Her anxiety skyrocketed as her eyes landed on Nicole who was throwing back more brown liquid. 

Now with a sober brain she’d know better but in her drunken state all she could think about was how all of this was Nicole's fault. Not only had Nicole taken her sister from her she had taken her entire hometown along with it. Hell she still worked on their farm, on her Aunt Gus’s house. 

“Well that’s not really my fault now is it Nicole?” She accused. 

“Well it damn sure ain't mine woman. I didn’t force you out of town.”

“No, not directly you didn't but it ain't my fault either. I couldn’t help I had more ambition than being a small town farmhand’s wife my entire life living in a podunk town with equally podunk people.”

Waverly tried to suck the words back in as soon as they escaped. She knew she’d thrown a dagger at Nicole, her face falling immediately at Waverly’s false words. In fact had they been in a movie this would have been the time the record would have scratched and all noise would have stopped because for the first time in.. well ever shorty’s was completely silent. All eyes landing on Waverly. Not only had she offended Nicole, she had clearly offended most of the bar patrons. Granted most of them were local farm hands or married to one. 

“Waverly! Let’s go. NOW” Wynonna shouted, pushing Waverly out of the bar as the hurt in Nicole’s eyes faded with the growing distance. Wynonna shoved Waverly outside, a bit more harshly than she intended. That outburst was what Wynonna was trying to avoid by getting the younger Earp out of the bar. She could feel the anger radiating off Waverly earlier in the night and she knew the girl was a ticking time bomb and honestly it had been worse than she imagined. 

“What the fuck was that Waves? How could you do that?” 

Waverly stumbled on her feet until she righted herself in front of her sister who wore a face of disappointment that hit her low in the stomach and mixed with her guilt like oil and water. 

“How could I do that?” Waverly said with disbelief. After everything Wynonna had done over the years, every apology Waverly had had to issue on her behalf wynonna was coming to her with judgement? “How could you lie to me about your phone?”

“I honestly don’t see the big deal.” WYnonna shrugged, her routine way of dismissing others feelings when shes the cause of their hurt. 

“Because you fucking lied and for what, Nicole?” Waverly asked as she poked Wynonna in the shoulder. 

“For Nicole?” Wynonna asked with confusion until she realized what Waverly was accusing her of. “Waverly I did that for YOU.”she poked Waverly back. 

“For me? How could keeping me from talking to my fiance be for me?”Waverly gawked with a shove to Wynonna’s chest. 

“Maybe because you need to face your fucking bullshit and you can’t do that with your head up someone else’s ass.” Wynonna gritted.

“You mean how your head has been up Nicole’s ass for the past eight years?” Waverly pushed back. 

“That’s not fair Waverly, I tried being there for the both of you. You just weren’t here and she was.” Wynonna defended. She didn’t know if that was a weak excuse or not but it was the harsh truth. Waverly had ran off and created a life separate from herself, one she seemed to be doing perfectly fine in. However Nicole had been right here in Purgatory unable to hide her pain. 

“Really Wynonna? Really? Because it seems like you have just blindly taken her side.” Waverly argued as she pushed Wynonna once more the older Earp stumbling backwards and landing on the dirt parking lot. 

She popped up quickly and tackled Waverly to the ground, climbing on top of her and pinning her arms by her head, just like she had as kids anytime they had a disagreement. 

“I’m not taking her side Waverly. I just want you to think about what you're doing before you do it.”

Waverly struggled against her sister’s strong grip as she tried to get up off the ground. She had wanted to make time for sisterly bonding while she was home but this was not what she had in mind. 

“Wynonna I don’t know if you've noticed but I am a grown ass woman. I can make my own decisions.”

Wynonna doubled down her grip on the smaller girl.

“Oh really? You're an adult? Because I don’t think adults run from their problems for eight years instead of facing them.”

“Maybe you should tell that to your best bud. She’s the one who has been holding on to a dead relationship for eight years.” Waverly relaxed as she argued. 

“Has she though? Look Waverly all i’m saying is how can a relationship like y’all had be dead when the two of y’all decided to get a divorce and then never face one another again? I’m relationship illiterate and that doesn’t make good sense to even me. If it's over then answer this for me, why have you avoided coming home for the past eight years?”

Wynonna relaxed her grip, leaning back on her heels as emotions swirled within Waverly. She knew the answer to both those loaded questions but just like the past years, she wasn't ready to face them. She quickly sat up,taking advantage of Wynonna’s downed guard and pushing her to the dirt before she climbed on top of her. 

If Gus could see them now, rolling around with one another in the dirt parking lot of Shorty’s, she’d surely skin their hydes. Good thing the old bird had no way of ever finding out this happened. 

“Purgatory PD! Hands Up!” 

Waverly and Wynonna both stopped abruptly at the sound of the echoing voice, blue lights illuminating the lights all around them as they sat covered in dust knee to knee to one another. 

“Shit.” They raised their hands and exclaimed simultaneously.

\------

The cell door slammed roughly in front of then as waverly took a seat on the concrete bench and wynonna wrapped her hands around the bars. 

“Hey you can’t do this to us. This is Purgatory’s favorite resident you’ve got trapped in here.” she shouted pointlessly as she shook the door, the metal clinging loudly as making waverly’s ears ring. 

“ Wynonna I don’t think shouting at him is going to get his attention, just like offering to show him your boobs in the car didn’t work.” Plus I don’t think i’m the town favorite anymore.” She reluctantly.

“Duh, i was talking about me.” Wynonna said obviously as she plopped down beside Waverly. She felt her drunkenness subside and with it her anger as she looked apologetically at her sister. 

“I’m sorry Wynonna, I shouldn’t have said those things about the people here. It was awful.” Waverly admitted sadly. She doesn’t even know why she said them because it wasn't the truth. Nicole had always thought that was the reason she wanted to leave, her and her job weighing her down, but it wasn't. 

“Yeah, it was” Wynonna agreed, only making Waverly feel worse in the process. “But don’t worry. If this town can forgive me and all the bullshit i’ve said then I’m sure they can forgive you.”

“I hope you’re right.” Waverly quipped. 

The sisters sat in heavy silence as the night’s events settled in on them. They never should have came to town, a chest of hurt opened that had to best stifled through. 

“I honestly wasn’t taking her side ya know? SHe’s my best friends sure but i’m your sister.” Wynonna offered, eyes fixed on the ground. “It really hurts me that you would think that.”

“What else was I supposed to think?” Waverly countered. “You literally defended her every chance you got. I could barely even talk about it without you coming to her defense. Hell I could barely talk about it at all.” Waverly admitted quietly.

“I wasn’t coming to her defense Waves.” Waverly fixed wynonna with a pointed look. “Okay maybe I was but I couldn’t see you Waves. Every Time I’d talk to you you just sounds so cheerful, like you were having the time of your life out there in the world. I had to see Ncicole everyday and it was.. Miserable honestly. I just thought I was doing what was best for the both of you. I thought y’all were the best for each other”

“I did too.” Waverly softened at the explanation. Of course Wynonna was only doing what she thought was right. As ass backwards as she was sometimes she always did things she thought was right.

“Back again Earp?” an officer questioned as he walked past the cell and waved at Wynonna who gave him a head nod. 

Okay maybe not always, but most of the time. 

“I wasn’t okay you know? It hurt so much all the time. I just didn't want you guys to worry about me.”

“We worried about you anyways baby girl.” Wynonna gave her a soft smile. “I just wish you would have let us help you.”

“You did, just maybe you didn't realize it.” Waverly offered. Wynonna didn’t know just how much Waverly longed for her phone calls, an hour worth of time when she felt like she wasn't living in a misery she had created. 

“You know you could have come home anytime you wanted? We would have welcomed you back with open arms.” 

“It was never that easy.” Waverly patted Wynonna on the leg as the silence grew once more. 

“Was it really that bad?” Waverly asked after some time, offering some clarification as Wynonna gave her a confused look. “Nicole I mean. After I left, was it really that bad?”

“If you call working 20 hours a day and sleeping in our old barn bad then yeah, I’d say it was bad.”

Waverly’s gut twisted at the answer, not sure if it was the thought of nicole being bad off threatening to make her sick or be it the half bottle of whiskey she drowned earlier.  
“Sleeping in the barn?” she asked cautiously, unsure if she wanted the answer. 

“She said couldn’t sleep in her bed without you in it.” Wynonna answered honestly as Waverly stomach churned once more and her face caught a hint of green. “I know right? How dramatic?”

Waverly just ignored Wynonna’s comment, still caught up in the idea of Nicole working herself to death. While envious of the support she would have compared to her Waverly had hoped they could soften the blow but it would seem she herself wasn’t the only one torn down after she left.

“She would have went with you, you know. If you’d have offered she would have went. She told me that probably a hundred times after you were gone.”

“I know, and that’s why didn’t ask.” Waverly’s clarified. “I didn’t ask because I knew she would have said yes and she would have been miserable. I couldn’t do that to her. Just like I needed to leave, Nicole needed to stay.”

“Why did you leave? I mean not that there’s anything here I’d say is worth staying for it just seemed odd you were the one to leave out of all of us. Was it because do Nicole?” 

“Of course it wasn’t because of Nicole. God for the longest time Nicole was the only reason I stayed.” Waverly explained painfully. 

“Wow thanks.” Wynonna rolled her eyes. 

“You know what I mean.” Waverly chuckled as she nudged Wynonna in the side, collecting her thoughts before continuing. “After Curtis.. he had always encouraged me to chase after what I wanted and after he died I realized I’d done nothing. I had literally achieved nothing. Everything he’d wanted me to go after, to achieve, I had never done. He died before I was able to show him he wasn’t foolish for doubting me. I just wanted to make him proud.” 

Wynonna watched with side eyes as Waverly wipes away a fallen tear. She had always known there was deeper meaning to Waverly’s grand adventure, she’d just never known it was that deep. 

“Have you told her any of that?”

“I use to, all the time but everytime I did we’d just end up fighting and screaming at one another.“ Waverly zoned out, harsh memories flashing through her mind. “And then eventually it was easier to be angry than it was to be hurt so the screaming and the fighting felt good.” 

“Earp!” The jailer called out as he approached the cell.

“Yes?” they both answered as the burly man checked his paper once again. 

“W. Earp?” 

“Yes?” They answered once more the man sighing in frustration. 

“All I’ve got is W. Earp. One of you has posted bailed.”

Wynonna knew exactly which Earp it was and exactly who posted it. She turned to look at Waverly reluctantly as she sat back against the wall. 

“I don’t have anyone here that would post my bail and I’m pretty sure you do so I think you’re his W. Earp.”

The jailer shuffled his keys before finding the right one and opening the cell door. Wynonna watched as Waverly closed her eyes, the action tugging on her heart. She turned back to the jailer, abruptly closing the door back on herself. 

“No thank you i’m good.” Wynonna refused as she sat back down beside Waverly. 

“You don't want bail?”

“Wynonna don’t be crazy, get out of here. It’s fine.” Waverly tried to convince her.

“Nope.” Wynonna shook her head. “I’m fine right where I am.”

“Whatever.” the man huffed as he disappeared from sight. 

“Thank you Wynonna.” Waverly offered a watery smile. 

“Anything for you baby girl.” she said ash she slung her arm over Waverly’s shoulder. “So we’re good?”

“We’re good.” Waverly leaned into her side. 

“However we probably would have been better if you'd just taken the bail and then bailed me out.”

“Damn it!’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week is wayhaught centric and of course more angst! 
> 
> See ya then. 
> 
> Comments and kudos welcome if deemed deserved. I love to see what you guys think.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of rodeo and yeehaw content with some clues as to what is going on with Nicole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on the chapter. I’ve been busy applying for a new job. This was almost a 20,000 word chapter but I split them instead. Hope people are still interested in this.

“Nedley! Hey Nedley! Hey!” Wynonna called out, squishing her face between the metal bars of the cell. 

The mustached man sighed quietly to himself, dropping his shoulders as he tried to peacefully fix his coffee. That’s all he wanted, just a calm morning with a hot cup of coffee before he had to get his day started. That’s all he wanted on every Saturday he had to work. Was that too much to ask? Wynonna must think so because she usually made sure that rarely ever happened.

It was the same routine every Saturday, he’d walk in the door hoping for an easy day only to be greeted by the banshee like shrieks of one Wynonna Earp begging him to release her, which he always ended up doing. Anyone else and he would just let them sit but to save himself and everyone else in the station their hearing he’d usually release her within the hour. Plus, not that he’d ever openly admit it but he had a soft spot for the outlaw. She never caused harm to anyone who didn’t need it and she never really had a chance from the time she was little. With an alcoholic father, a dead older sister, and an absentee mother Wynonna was destined to turn out a little wild. Nedley has seen firsthand just how much the girl had to shoulder at such a young age. She had practically raised her younger sister who couldn’t have turned out better which was a testament to Wynonna’s true character. She just needed the world to cut her a break and Nedley normally found himself being the one to give it to her. 

“Cut it out Earp! I heard you as soon as I walked in the door. Let me get my damn cup of joe before you start all that damn yappin.” 

“Jeez alright.” She said as she held up her hands in surrender and backed off the door. “Who pissed in your cornflakes this morning?” 

“Well I was in a great mood before I walked in the door so that might tell ya something.” He answered as he took a relaxing sip of his coffee, breathing in the steam in preparation of dealing with his biggest headache. 

“Well excuse me for being in a bad mood but we’ve been in here all night waiting for you. This is basically police brutality.” She countered. 

“Police brutality?!” Nedley nearly spit his coffee out with laughter, coughing as he choked on the hot liquid. “Earp I’ve seen you literally make my officers cry. I don’t think they could abuse you if- wait did you say we?” He paused as he stalked over to the cell. “Haught I swear if you let yourself get caught up into Wynonna’s bull- oh.” He stopped as the youngest Earp came into view. 

“Hi Sheriff.” She greeted quietly with a sheepish wave and a blush on her face. 

“Waverly? What on God’s green Earth?” He nearly couldn't believe his eyes. With his profession and this crazy ass town he’d seen a lot of things but seeing Waverly Earp sitting in of all places his jail might just be the craziest. 

“First time for everything?” She shrugged weakly with a guilty half smile. Only Gus would have been worse to face in this moment. Nedley had been like a dad to Waverly and the disappointment on his face had the same effect as a real parent’s would have. Granted he shouldn’t be too surprised, with the amount of times Waverly had had to drag Nicole and Wynonna out of there he should have figured it was only a matter of time before she got wrapped up just the same way. Truth be told she probably would have a lot sooner if she didn’t have half of Purgatory wrapped around her finger back in the day. One sweet smile from Waverly would have every officer in Purgatory letting her off with a warning while they’d haul the other two off to jail. Nicole had never particularly liked it, her own jealousy nipping at her, but so long as Waverly stayed out of the big house she was always available to bail them out. Lord knows Gus wasn't going to. She always told them they had one time when she would come get them, no questions asked. Waverly had never had to use hers but of course Wynonna cashed hers in by the time she was ten, getting her and Nicole caught by accidentally shooting out the windows of Shorty’s with their slingshots. Gus called herself ridden the two heathens from their devices except Curtis had just given them right back. A little trouble was all in the fun he’d tell her. 

“I should have known Wynonna’s shenanigans would land you in here fore it was all said and done.” He scrutinized. 

“I know.” Wynonna sniffled as she wiped a fake fallen tear. “I don’t think I've ever been so proud. She’s really an Earp after all.”

Waverly and Nedley rolled their eyes at each other as the moustached man fought to hide his smirk. 

“She’s always been an Earp. Hell as much as she had to chase after her, the wife could attest to that fact, yes mam. ” Nedley shook his head softly, gaze drifting as he visited a past memory waverly could nearly see herself. 

She felt her heart clench for the man. She’d never forget the day Wynonna tearfully told her about Mrs. Nedley’s passing. She only been 50 when she dropped dead from a heart attack in her backyard garden and it had shook the town of Purgatory greatly. She was the sheriff’s wife to the rest of the town but to her next door neighbors she had always been much more than that. 

The Earp name had never carried the best reputation around town, people turning up their noses at the look of them, and that had really began to show when the girl’s started school. They would often get left off birthday and slumber party guest list despite Waverly putting forth her best effort to make sure everyone liked her. It had been disheartening to the youngest Earp but a lesson Wynonna had always told her she had to learn sooner or later. 

“Us Earps ain’t no good babygirl.” She’d always say. 

However she knew Mrs. Nedley didn’t believe that, just like Waverly didn’t. Living next door to the homestead she had often seen first hand what came along with being an Earp but it never deterred her from being the first person to invite all of them over for tomato sandwiches and sweet tea during the summer time. She loved Waverly like she was her own and while she’d spent a lot of time yelling at Wynonna and Nicole, like much of the townspeople had, she never let those deemed troublemakers get left out either. Waverly often got choked up thinking about the sweetness of the woman and purity that got stripped from the world when she left it. She knew staying away from Purgatory at the time had been the right decision but she would always regret not coming home for her service.

“It was an honor to know her Nedley, for all of us. I hate I couldn’t be here for Chrissy and you back then. 

“I’ve seen a lot of things with this job but I gotta admit, nothing was harder than that.” He said with a silent sniffle before a watery smile broke across his face. “You know what though? Out of everything that day, the visitation ,the funeral, the hundreds of people who shook my hand, one of the only things I can remember is your redhead.” He chuckled to himself. 

“Nicole?” Waverly asked confused even though she knew the answer. Nedley had always called Nicole the Earp sister’s redhead like she had been their pet. Waverly would always puff out her chest and declare Nicole was her own independent woman but Nicole never seemed to mind. 

“Yes. Lord I will never forget that fool.” Nedley laughed heartily now, the sounds infecting Waverly as she chuckled along with him despite not knowing what he was laughing at. “She brought a case of tomatoes to her funeral. Here everyone else is stacking flowers in every inch of the funeral home and that damn Nicole comes right to the front and puts of all things a case of tomatoes right by her casket front and center. Those people looked at her like she’d lost her damned mind and all I could do was laugh.”

Waverly laughed fully now because that was definitely Nicole. She could picture it clear as day, the redhead dressed in the only suit she’d ever owned walking through the crowd with tomatoes as bright as her hair. Nicole had always had a way of capturing everyone’s attention around her, whether that be good or bad, and it seems like that day was no different. 

“That was the most miserable day and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard in my entire life. The misses. was probably rolling her eyes from Heaven at that fool but I know she was just a smilin’. She loved y’all girls but especially Nicole. She sure did.” He said to himself. “Probably all that time she spent helping her replant her tomatoes after y’all’d stomp all over them with your careless playin’.”

“Wait she would do that?” Waverly had never seen Nicole do such a thing and she knew everything Nicole did back in those days. That’s the territory that comes along with watching someone like a hawk. 

“Everytime.” He smiled proudly. 

Waverly could only smile in response. Even after all this time the redhead could still manage to surprise her.

“She’s always been a good one ya know?” He looked at her pointedly, conveying a message Waverly could easily read without his spoken words. “ I don’t think there's a bad bone in that girl’s body. Hell how many people you know would let you keep living, rent free might I add, in the house they rightfully owned?”

“Wha- Wait, Nicole owns your house? The house beside mine? She owns that?” Waverly asked with wide eyes. Maybe Nicole had more surprises than she accounted for.

“Yeah you didn’t know?” Nedley asked like it was well known information. 

“No I guess that slipped through the gaps.” Waverly said as she tried to configure how Nicole could afford something like that. Sure she probably got paid more on the Earp farm than what her Uncle Curtis use to pay her back in the day but to invest in a house and then never live in it. Well that sounds like some kind of disposable income. “Sorry that’s just kind of surprising. 

“Not really, Nicole owns half of Pu-”

“Hey Neds!” Wynonna interrupted abruptly with a shake to the metal doors. “I hate to break up the reminiscing over there but can we get out of here. My ass is royally sore.” She said as she dramatically rubbed her backside which made Nedley grimace. He eyed both of them harshly, seemingly contemplating a decision he had already made as Wynonna made pouting puppy eyes at him and Waverly zoned out lost in thought of this new information. 

“Ah Hell, why not?” He finally caved as wynonna clapped loudly and he opened the door to free the two women. “I can’t keep y’all locked up on Rodeo night anyways. That just wouldn’t be right now would it?” 

“What?” Waverly finally snapped back to the conversation. “Rodeo is tonight?” She felt her stomach sour at the thought. 

Once a year during Purgatory's Annual Watermelon Festival the town would host a rodeo that drew every person in town, to the big cattle barn on the edge of town to watch idiots be bucked off bulls and horses alike. The event was the pride of Purgatory and one of the biggest thorns of Waverly’s side when she lived there. Everyone else loved it but all Waverly could think of was how stressed out her daddy would get around that time of year and while those bulls might have been dangerous there wasn’t anything much more dangerous than an angry Ward Earp. 

After he died Waverly thought she was free of that yearly dread, so much so she let herself get excited about the event. That is until she found out Nicole was going to be competing.Then of course the dread her father induced was now induced by the brunette having to watch her girlfriend get thrown to the ground from 2 ton animals who would love nothing more than to somp her to death.. At first she had begged Nicole to stop bull riding but the only person who loved it more than her daddy was her wife so she eventually just gave up. 

“Of course we are going. This is the only thing exciting that ever happens in this town.” Wynonna mumbled as she threw her arm over her younger sister. She knew how Waverly felt about the event but there was no way she was going to let her miss it. Plus, the more chances for her to run into Nicole the better. 

“Iiii don't know Wynonna. I mean I kind of pissed off alot of people last night. I’m not really sure I’m welcome.” 

“Wait, you're the asshole from the bar that called everyone podunks? Damn I figured that was Wynonna” Nedley spoke up, the pair just looking back at him incredulously. “Sorry, heard it in the diner this morning.”

“And what better time to apologize than when everyone is actually getting along for once?”

“ I guess so..” Waverly offered as Wynonna dragged her through the police station. “See ya tomorrow morning Neds!”

“Please don’t!” He called back as Wynonna waved at him from behind her back. “Damn Earps.”

\----------

Nicole leaned against the metal bars of the gate as she breathed in the alluring musk of fresh dirt and livestock. She couldn’t help the excitement that rattled through her chest. 

The rodeo. 

An event that only came once a year and was over far too quickly for Nicole’s liking. She’d spent one night every summer for as far back as she could remember at Purgatory’s rodeo. When she was little she’d spent her nights chasing after Waverly and wrestling Wynonna in the mud out behind the arena. It wasn’t long before Nicole had found her niche right there with those bulls. The first time she had strapped herself to the back of one of those beautiful beast and rode it all for two seconds before being promptly thrown to the ground she had fallen in love, just as quick as that. Waverly’s had said she was just hallucinating from hitting her head against the ground but Nicole knew the adrenaline she felt coarse through her veins in just that short time might as well had been a drug, one that was unmatched to any other. Except of course when she’d gotten up the courage to ask Waverly to be her girlfriend and then years later her wife. She’s still not sure how she got that girl to say yes the first time, much less the second. 

Nicole admired her surroundings as she basked in the glow of the bright overhead lights that lit up the newly renovated barn, complete with PBR grade arena and stalls as well as an overall expansion to accommodate the ever growing masses that now attended Purgatory’s Annual Rodeo every year. It would never cease to amaze Nicole what the once rinky dink rodeo had grown into over the years. Of course she figures that’s what a championship bull lineage could do for such an event. One day Pete York is winning over all grand prize for staying on a bull for a measly four seconds and then next riders are coming from all over to take a crack at the infamous Petey, Purgatory’s biggest and meanest bull. That bull had spawned a family of descendants that could terrorize any bull rider's nightmares and all of them wanted a piece of one. 

“Hey” Chrissy said softly as she approached Nicole and idly slid up beside her. 

“What do you want?” Nicole sighed, blinking away from the lights she’d been unknowingly staring at as black spots clouded her vision. 

“What do you mean what do I want?” Chrissy said defensively. “I can’t just say hey?” 

“The only time you greet me as nicely as you just did is when you think I’m gone be upset so spill it.” 

“That is totally not true!”

It was true. 

Normally Chrissy’s way of greeting Nicole included a punch in the arm followed by whatever nagging she wanted to bestow upon the redhead that day so Nicole knew that when the blonde was being overly nice she usually wanted to talk about something Nicole didn’t necessarily want to hear. She always thought her charm cushioned the blow she was always about to deliver but really it just gave her away. It was the same tone she held the day she came to Nicole and told her she’d backed her car up into back fender of the truck Nicole had saved all summer to get. The same one Chrissy had when she’d come by to check on Nicole right after Waverly had left. She hated it. 

“Just spit it out.” 

“So Waverly is back..” Chrissy trailed off. 

There it is. 

“Yep.” 

“Yep.” Chrissy agreed, eyes desperately trying to coax more out of Nicole 

“What about it?” She asked nonchalantly, avoiding eye contact with the blonde so she couldn’t read just how non-nonchalant it really was to Nicole. 

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

Nicole couldn’t help the small smile that crept up her face. After Waverly left Nicole had been worried about how it would affect her relationship with the blonde as they hadn’t been great friends before. Sure they had hung out plenty of times but Chrissy was always clearly Waverly’s friend. Waverly always said Chrissy played devil’s advocate, defending Nicole when Waverly was mad but the redhead knew better than that by the amount of times Chrissy had given her a punch in the arm for doing something young and foolish that would upset Waverly. She figured that friendship would fizzle but if anything it had the opposite effect, bringing them both closer to one another in a time when they’d both lost someone so significant and needed an outlet for that. 

“That must be a million dollar question because you’re only the tenth person to ask me that.” Nicole joked with a heaviness that one normally wouldn’t carry. “And I’m gone tell you just like I told them, I’m fine.” 

“Yes but is this the Nicole ‘I’m fine’ that really means you’re fine or is this the Nicole ‘I’m fine’ that really means I’m in a lot of pain but I’m too bullheaded to admit it.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nicole crossed her arms stubbornly. 

“I’ll go with the latter.” Chrissy said as she eyed Nicole knowninly. 

“I’m fine means I’m fine so I’m fine.” Nicole argued, convincing herself the more times she said it the more Chrissy may actually believe it. 

“Kinda like you were fine when you twisted your ankle playing basketball at PE but you didn’t want to let the boys win and Waverly see you lose so you kept playing anyway and had to have that thing wrapped in a cast for six weeks?” Chrissy accused, placing her hands on her hips to get her point across. “That kind of fine?”

“Whatever.” Nicole grumbled. She knew there was no point in trying to argue with the other girl, just like Waverly she could see right through her. Plus she wasn’t sure if she actually was fine. The redhead had learned fairly early on in the grieving process that convincing yourself your fine is easy but actually feeling that way is something totally different. She had easily carried on about her everyday life like she was okay, finding things to distract her from the heaviness in her chest. However when she was alone, nothing to keep her out of her own mind, that’s when it would get real. The late night loneliness latching it’s claws into her and holding her hostage until dawn would break and she could pry them loose with the morning light. 

“You can’t ‘whatever’ this Nicole. I know you think ignoring your problems is a viable option but this time it ain’t. What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean what I’m going to do?” Nicole questioned angirly. Who said she had to do anything at all? She hated that question, in part because everyone felt obliged to ask her such but mainly because it brought to the forefront of her mind the one thing she couldn’t stand to think about. For a long time people had been too skittish to ask her about the papers and then, just like Nicole, people just kind of forgot about it. She much preferred that than the way people have been up in arms about it lately. 

“Are you going to sign the papers?” Chrissy pushed as Nicole moved to walk away from her, trying to get out from under the blonde’s persistent questioning. 

“I guess.” Nicole shrugged, really what other choice did she have? It would get the younger Earp out of town and while the thought of not knowing if she’d ever see Waverly again made her heart seize so hard she could barely breathe, she knew it was inevitable and it might be better to just rip it off like a bandaid. 

“You guess?!” Chrissy asked incredulously as she followed closely behind Nicole who was busy tying up the advertisement signs that hang on the gates circling the arena. “You guess?!” 

“Uh, yeah… What else am I supposed to do?” 

“Umm I don’t know, maybe try to talk it out. It’s been eight years since you talked to her Nicole. A lot can change in 8 years!.” Chrissy said like it was the most obvious solution, instead of the most complicated. “Shouldn't you at least give it a shot? What if y’all could work it out?” 

“Chrissy” Nicole chuckled softly with a slight shake of her head. She refused to let anyone believe that to be a possibility, herself or otherwise. “This ain’t high school anymore. We can’t just sit down after class, kiss and make up, and be fine in time for the football game. It’s a lot deeper than that.” 

“It doesn’t have to be.” Chrissy countered. “You guys are perfect for one another Nicole. You have been since the beginning. We can all see it.”

“Were Chrissy.” Nicole corrected with a pain in her voice neither of them missed. “We were perfect for one another, or at least I thought we were.”

“And what if you could be again? You’d never know unless you tried it.” 

Nicole sighed, looking at Chrissy sincerely as she pondered the thought. The two were just too different, plus Waverly had someone. She was about to get married for Christ’s sake. Hell she came here for a divorce, not a recollection. Sure it was sweet to dream of some grand reunion like something off a movie but this was real life and things didn’t work out that way. She looked at the blonde, a gentleman behind her waving his hand and catching her attention. 

Thank god, a way out of this conversation. 

Nicole waved him off briefly before she tied the last rope of the sign up and clapped Chrissy on the shoulder. 

“It’s not happening Chrissy. I got over it. Waverly got over it. You need to too.” Nicole said matter of factly even though they both believed it was anything but fact before she pushed past the other girl. “Plus you heard what she said last night, she left for a reason and the last time I checked those reasons are still reasons.”

“You know she didn’t mean that Nicole. She was just drunk.” Chrissy followed behind Nicole as she made her way to the man standing in the back. Nicole wanted to believe that,she really did, but her own insecurities wouldn’t let her which only made her feel worse which of course only pissed her off even more. Waverly left and she shouldn't give a damn why. 

Correction ,She didn’t give a damn.

“I’ve got business to attend to Chrissy. I don’t have time for this mind numbing conversation.”She said harsher than she intended to. 

Okay maybe she did give a damn.

“Hey. I’m not trying to push you, if you really believe its over then don’t pursue it.” Chrissy reached out and grabbed Nicole’s arm, stopping the redhead as she turned to look at her apologetically. “Just think about it will ya?” She asked sweetly.

“Sure Chrissy. Whatever you want.” Nicole caved, although intending to do no such thing. 

“Thank you.” Chrissy relented, nosedly looking over Nicole’s shoulder before making a face. “You are still doing business with him? Gross.” 

Nicole eyed Bobo over her shoulder before rolling her eyes at the other girl. 

“C’mon He’s not so bad.” She shrugged. “ I really think he’s just got a bad rep.”

“My daddy has arrested him enough times for me to believe otherwise..” Chrissy countered. 

“I’ve never had any problems outta him. He’s just… a character.” Nicole corrected, choosing her words carefully. She definitely couldn’t deny his past but she was a firm believer in second chances… maybe third. “Plus he’s the best at what he does.” 

“I wouldn’t brag about that.” Chrissy mumbled as she watched the redhead walk away. “Hey, are you going to ride this year?!” 

“You ask that every year Chrissy. You need some new material.” Nicole called back without even turning around. “Maybe you should get out more!” 

“Says the girl who’s never left Purgatory!” 

Nicole could only shake her head as she shot the other girl a bird behind her back. 

——

Wynonna grasped Waverly harshly by the wrist as she drug the reluctant girl into the arena. Truth be told Wynonna couldn't give a shit about Purgatory’s grand event, sure it was a place to throw back beers and openly yell in public without being criticized, which happened to be two of her favorite things. More importantly though it was one more opportunity to get Waverly around Nicole. Chrissy had committed herself to working over the redhead while Wynonna had committed herself to Waverly. Those two hard headed sons of bitches might not realize the connection they still carried but their best friends sure did and they were going to do everything in their power to bring them back together. They just had to do it behind their backs because god forbid they be able to sit down and have an adult conversation about it. 

“Wynonna I really don’t think I should be here. You saw those people at the ticket booth, they could have set me on fire with their eyes if....” Waverly trailed off with wide eyes stopping in her tracks as she entered the barn.. correction, stadium.

“Not your same ole rodeo is it Waves?” Wynonna smirked. 

“ Yeah no kiddin.” Waverly mumbled.

“C’mon there's no wait at the drink tent.” Wynonna pointed out.

Waverly let herself be freely dragged forward as she gazed off at her surroundings. The last rodeo she had been to was the one they held the summer before she left and maybe she had been honed in on Nicole and her not getting killed but she definitely didn't remember Purgatory's rodeo being like this. 

The arena was nearly doubled in size, completely updated with ultra bright stadium lights and stands that were nearly filled to the brim with people Waverly knew were definitely not Purgatory citizens. Her jaw dropped at the line of riders crowding the fence, most dressed in gear officially sponsored by one name brand or another. 

This was definitely not her daddy’s rodeo.

“Wynonna, what?... How?” Waverly asked mesmerized by the reality that Purgatory could even hold such an event. Purgatory isn’t even a place that would registered on a standard GPS. How was any outsider, much less this many, even able to find the town?

“Uh I guess you could say a generous sponsor.” Wynonna shrugged. Technically that was the truth. It had been one very generous sponosor. 

“Why would anyone want to invest in a place like Purgatory?” 

Because of course it had to be some out of towner. No one in town could make that kind of money here. There just wasn’t an opportunity for it. Purgatory and it’s residence had long since accepted the fact that they would be forever teetering the line of poverty. No one in town cared enough to make something more out of it and no from out of town even know it existed. 

Or at least, so she thought. 

Waverly’s eyes scanned the crowd and she drank in the wild wonder in front of her as staff members ran to and fro trying to get things in order. The crowd bustled around the arena, all wide smiles and bright excited eyes. An unmistakable flash of red caught her attention as her gaze settled upon Nicole across the way. 

The redhead stood, hands on hips and smile wide enough to make her dimples pop as she looked over to a group of young kids who were all stacked up in their best rodeo attire. Waverly unconsciously drifted over to the metal gate that formed the oval of the riding area. She threw her hands over the railing as she watched a young girl, no older than six she reckon, run over to Nicole and tug on her pants. 

“Cole” the girl said softly as she gave the redhead’s pants leg another soft tug. Nicole turned and looked down before a bright smile spread across her face. 

“Hey, what are you doing here?” Nicole asked concerningly as she knelt down to meet the little girl’s eye level. “You’re riding next. You need to be getting ready.”

“I don’t want to ride anymore.” She said shyly as she looked down to the ground. 

“What do you mean you don’t want to ride anymore?” Nicole asked softly. “You’ve been waiting for this all year. You were just talking about it yesterday. What happened?” 

“Nothin’” the girl drawled, full accent coming to life with the emotions in her tone. “Let’s just go.” 

“Na-uh.” Nicole warned. They both knew that neither of them were going anywhere until she told her what was wrong. 

The little brunette made a show of blowing her hair back as she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed loudly. 

“Bobby Joe and all them boys back there said they bet I can’t even ride for one second, said I was gone fall right off just like last year.” She said with watery eyes. Nicole felt her heart soften at the sight. 

“Well you know what I think?” She asked confidently.

“Hphm “ the girl little brunette grunted before side eyeing Nicole. 

“I think that Bobby Joe is nervous because he heard about how hard we been practicing all summer and how you rode for a whole five seconds a few weeks ago. Five seconds Carolina!” She repeated enthusiastically when the girl started to smile just a bit, still looking a bit hesitate to believe the redhead. “Look at the scoreboard. Five seconds is two seconds longer than any of them have ridden.” Nicole emphasized as the girl looked over to the bright neon lights on the folding table. “And you know what else I think?” 

“What?” Carolina asked as her eyes grew wider. 

“I also think that Bobby Joe is nervous, not only because he knows he’s about to get beat but also because he knows he’s about to get beat by the only girl brave enough to come out here and compete with all these boys.” Nicole smiled cockily. Like father, like son of course. His daddy, Pete York, use to tell Nicole the same thing back in their hay day and Nicole would always whoop his ass too. His shit talkin only made it that much sweeter when she was the one holding the trophy. 

“Yeah?” the girl smiled brightly now, eyes beaming with confidence. 

“Hell yeah.” Nicole smiled before she took her hat off her head and put it on the little one below where she now stood. “Now, go show those boys what ridin a bull like a girl is all about.”

“Hell yeah!” She repeated as she tugged Nicole’s hat further down her head and nodded, sure of herself. 

Nicole could only smile and shake her head as the girl climbed over and placed herself on the saddle of the mini makeshift mechanical bull. The operator fired up the machine, the bull moving wildly from side to side before throwing the girl to the cushioned mat. Everyone looks up to the clock simultaneously as five seconds shined brightly back at them. 

“Looks like we’ve got a new Purgatory Bull Riding Mini Champion.” The announcer called out as the girl clapped excitedly. Everyone watched as they crowned second and third, Bobby Joe coming in the latter Nicole noted, and handed the big trophy over to Carolina as applause ripped through the small crowd that formed around them. 

Waverly couldn’t help how vigorously she clapped, getting unexpectedly caught up in the moment right along with Nicole. 

“Cole! Cole! I did it! Look, I did it!” The girl announced proudly as she ran and jumped into the redhead, who caught her and lifted her high in the air. 

“I saw you! I told you you could do it!” Nicole hugged her tightly with the proudest grin Waverly had ever seen the woman wear. She couldn’t help the warmth that hit her square in the chest and exploded through the rest of her body, sending butterflies scattering in her stomach. 

“When you’re done drooling over Haught maybe we could make our way to our seats?” Wynonna asked as she wiped some spit from the corner of Waverly’s mouth, effectively waking the brunette from her redhead endured trance.

“Huh?” Waverly startled before she realized what her sister was intending, eyes setting low as she scoffed at the indication. “Yeah right...I wasn’t drooling over Nicole.” 

“Yeah just like they aren’t either huh?” Wynonna smirked as she turned Waverly’s attention towards the gathering of women who smiled adoringly at Nicole and Carolina. Waverly rolled her eyes at the comparison, no way she was gawking over the redhead the way those women were. All eyes gazed over and wide smiles across their faces. 

Definitely NOT the same face Waverly wore when Wynonna interrupted her appreciation of Nicole. 

Suddenly a blonde caught her eye, an ever familiar one as Stephanie strolled across the dirt towards Nicole and the little girl. 

“Of course.” Waverly scoffed quietly to herself, although Wynonna could hear. The raven haired woman only rolling her eyes at her sister’s obliviousness. “Stephanie is such an attention whore. Why does she always have to be in the middle of something?”

“Well that is her kid and all.” Wynonna corrected.

Waverly’s face fixed into a scowl as she gazed harshly ahead. The heat already coursing through her veins igniting wildly with an unexpectedly sense of envy. Not only was Nicole and Stephanie shacking up, they had a kid?!

Sure she had wanted kids with Nicole, heart pounding a beat faster as it always does when she thinks about a couple of redtopped children running around the same yard Nicole and Waverly use to. However, she had wanted them later, much later. She didn’t want to be like her mom and her mom before her, knocked up right out of high school and stuck in Purgatory, so when Nicole had asked about children Waverly had nearly panicked. The small window of escape she’d imagined closing quicker than she would like. 

However, Waverly was older now, more stable, and she had thought about kids more seriously in the past few years but she only found herself in more of the same conclusion. She wasn’t ready. Except this time she thinks it has much less to do with her and more to do with whose baby she’d be having because right now, watching Stephanie and Nicole, she could definitely see herself with one of her own. 

Of course only with Nicole. 

Waverly shook her head free of the unasked images her brain was currently conjuring up of small children who looked just like a certain redhead she knew. 

“Can we go now Waves?” Wynonna inquired anxiously, tugging at the other girl’s elbow. 

“Huh? Oh- yes. Of course. Of course I’m ready. What are you waiting for? Let’s go.” Waverly rushed as she pushed Wynonna towards the bleachers. If she didn’t get out of eye’s view of Purgatory’s loveliest family she was going to barf. 

“You did so good baby!” Stephanie praised as the little girl climbed into her mom’s arms. 

“I rode a whole five seconds mama! Did you see it?!”

“I know you did! I saw it all. You were amazing.” Stephanie beamed. “Best bull rider in Purgatory.” 

“Nah-Uh mama. That’s Cole.” She pointed towards the redhead who could only smile sheepishly. 

“And don’t you forget it.” Nicole winked as she plucked the hat from the little girl’s head and tossed it on her own. Stephanie reached up and twirled the string of Nicole’s hat gingerly as she looked up at her with admiration and a hint of something else that could be deemed a bit inappropriate for the moment. 

“Thank you Nicole.” Stephanie cooed as she eyed at the other woman. The redhead almost let herself get lost in the look before Bobo’s waving hand caught her attention. She held a finger up to Stephanie before she jogged over towards the man. 

Waverly watched curiously as she followed Nicole's sight and landed on a familiar face, one that had ran along side of her Daddy back in the day and created nothing but havoc. What business did Nicole have with Bobo Del Ray? If Waverly recalled correctly the only business to be had with the man was none Nicole should be caught up in. 

“Hey you go on and find us a seat.” Waverly instructed as she turned to go back down the stairs, curiosity getting the best of her. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” 

“Sure thing babygirl.” 

Waverly made her way over to the pair, trying her best to stay out of their line of sight as she barely caught the tail end of their conversation. 

“The buyer said what you gave him was low, Said you trying to cheat him out of all the product you owe him.” Bobo informed Nicole making her pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration. An action Waverly was all too familiar with from their last few months as a “happily” married couple. It usually meant Nicole was done with whatever conversation she was engaged in. The redhead rarely got to that point of frustration but when she did, she’d shut down whatever was giving her a fit. 

“Why is it that he’s the only one of our buyers that has ever had a problem with what we give him? I don’t owe that bastard a damn thing. He’s the one that came to me wanting to buy, not the other way around. I don’t need him for shit.” Nicole spoke sternly. 

“I agree boss.” 

“You know I hate when you call me that.” Nicole rolled her eyes, shoulders relaxing just a bit as she realized how worked up she had let herself get that quickly. Bobo always had a way of doing that, diffusing stress. Nicole reckoned it was from how much practice he got with hectic situations in his “past life” as he calls it. 

Waverly’s curiosity peaked at this exchange. Boss? Buyers? What kind of buyers could Nicole be in touch with and why is Bobo calling her boss? What exactly was she selling and was she selling enough of it to be able to afford Nedley’s land? Bobo has never had any business outside of the bad kind and now it looks like Nicole has wrapped herself into the same thing Ward had. Waverly couldn’t help the disbelief she felt st Nicole falling into that kind of lifestyle, not her Nicole. 

“You tell that son of bitch that he’s going to take what I give him or we’re done with business altogether. I’m not gone keep dealing with his bullshit.” Nicole instructed, face fixed with a hard jaw that always made Waverly want to rub it loose. Mainly because she hated how much it made her body buzz to see Nicole worked up like that. 

Lost in her eavesdropping Waverly failed to notice the sparsity of the crowd until Bobo did a double take and caught her looking eyes with a wide smile. 

“I told you those loose ends would come back to hang you one day.” He joked. Nicole looked at him with a scrunched brow until he pointed over to Waverly who was trying her best to make herself disappear. 

Nicole huffed earnestly at the sight of the other woman because of course Waverly was there, listening. She could already anticipate the question she knew the other woman would have. The brunette had always had a hankering for tending to other folk’s business, especially Nicole’s, and it looked like she hadn’t lost that nagging trait when she left. Of course when they were growing up Nicole didn’t mind it, any attention from the younger girl she would take but right now it was a pain in her ass. 

“So this is why you’ve been in a mood all day?” Bobo asked Nicole who tried to bury the blush rushing up to her face. Waverly hadn't been affecting her like that, no way. She definitely didn’t need the woman getting a head about it either. 

“I haven’t been a mood.” Nicole scoffed defensively, side eyeing Waverly and hoping she didn’t catch it. 

She had and she couldn’t help the surge of her heartbeat at the prospect of Nicole thinking about her. Even if it wasn’t in the best of circumstances. 

“You have totally been in a mood boss.” Bobo corrected knowingly. “You’ve been ornery as an ole billy goat all day. Don’t you think you can do something with her Mrs. Waverly? Help her relax or something? We’ve been havin to walk on eggshells all day” 

Waverly blushed furiously at the possible implications of what Bobo intended with his statement. Her mind quickly flashed with the memories of how she use to help Nicole, and herself, “relax” before riding events. Rolling around in the back of a cow trailer probably wasn’t the most sanitary thing they could have done but damn if it wasn’t sexy to play in Waverly’s mind during her late night of wonder of her imagination. 

Waverly chanced a glance at Nicole who must be thinking the same thing as her face was beat red and she was shoving Bobo away from them both. 

“alright. That’s enough. Ain’t you got somewhere to be?.” Nicole shoved the smirking man. “Get on outta here now.”

“Bye Mrs. Waverly!” He called back with a wave and a smile as he stumbled out of the building. 

Waverly offered a small wave and smile before an awkward silence settled between the two women. 

“Soooo…boss?” Waverly inquired. 

That didn’t take long. Nicole could only roll her eyes in response because she knew this was the first question of many. 

“Looks like it I guess.” Nicole brushed it off as she started to walk away from Waverly. 

“Hey don’t walk away from me. I’m talking to you!” Waverly called out as she followed closely behind her, frustration clear in her voice. Nicole couldn’t just keep avoiding her. They had business to attend to. 

“I’ve got work to do Waverly. I ain’t got time to sit around and give you an explanation I don’t owe you.” 

“Oh quite the contrary Nicole. I think as your wife I’m entitled to some sort of clarity as to why you’re now running around with Bobo Del Ray. What’s he got you doing?” 

“Didn’t you hear him Waverly? I’m the boss.” Nicole laughed hollowly. “And I wouldn’t go around claiming you’re entitled. People round here already think you must think you’re better than us.” 

“I don’t care what people around here think of me.” Waverly argued weakly. That was a lie and they both knew it. Waverly hated how her subconscious yearned to be liked by everyone. 

“I’d say. You made it pretty clear last night that no one around these sorts matter much to you.” Nicole quipped, voice hinging on a hurt that both the women picked up. 

Waverly instantly softened, guilt sweeping through her. She was half hoping Nicole was too drunk to remember the night before but she should have known better. Nicole had a mind like an elephant, she never forgot anything. Especially anything about Waverly. 

“Nicole about last night-“ waverly attempted before Nicole cut her off. 

“Are we done here now? I’ve got to get on with it.” Nicole announced before she continued walking away from Waverly. 

“You know if you didn’t want to deal with me you could sign the damn papers and be done with it! I’d be out of your hair, gone forever” 

There goes that seizing heart again. 

“I know you’re use to having my undivided attention sweetie but I’ve got more important things to focus on right now than you.” Nicole barked out sarcastically. 

“Yes of course.I definitely don’t want to stand in the way of you and bull riding, we all know how that ends don’t we? That’s the most important thing after all ain’t it Nicole? Making sure you get your turn at getting bucked off and stepped on?” Waverly shouted, old wounds busting open and spilling out into every word for emphasis. 

Nicole shook her head with a chuckle. 

“You don’t know anything about me Waverly.” 

“But don’t I Nicole? I’ve only been around it my entire life, some lowly ole cowboy stuck in their own head about being a professional bull rider.”

Nicole stopped in her tracks, jaw clenched at the notion of Waverly’s words. 

“And just like Daddy it looks like you’re willing to do whatever you have to do to get there. I must say, I didn’t see you slinging with Bobo as a level you should stoop to. Guess y’all aren’t that different after all.” 

There it was. The same ridiculous acclamation Waverly spewed last time they’d had a fight about Nicole’s life choices, her own insecurities and past tribulations with her father spilling over into her feelings about Nicole. 

Waverly ran right into Nicole chest, too caught up in her own point to notice the other woman had stopped abruptly and now stood towering over her with fixed eyes and a hard set jaw. 

“I’m nothing like that son of bitch.” She said with a seriousness that startled Waverly, making her take a step back to put space between them. 

“Y’all ride bulls just the same.” Waverly retorted weakly, her bravado escaping her as she clamored for a response. 

Nicole watched Waverly harshly as if contemplating something before a glassy gaze swept over her eyes, a look Waverly recognized as Nicole’s determined face. 

“We will see about that.” She said with certainty before her eyes scanned the crowd in search of Chrissy. “Hey Chris!” She called out while waving the other girl over. 

“What’s up Haught?” Chrissy questioned, smile faltering as her eyes landed on Waverly who could only look away ashamedly. Waverly couldn’t be sure but by the look on the blonde’s face Waverly could assume she was also causality of her bar rant from the night before. 

“Put me on Petey’s schedule.”

Chrissy wide eyed Nicole, an unspoken question in her stare until the redhead shook her head with assurance. 

“Are you sure? Nicole you haven’t-” She asked anyways. 

“Just do it Chrissy.” She said, challenging eyes never leaving Waverly’s. 

“Whatever you say.” She sighed as she scribbled Nicole’s name down to on the last page. She always joked these two idiots would be the death of one another but it looks like tonight it might be literal. “It’s your funeral Nicole.” 

“Guess we'll just have to see about that.” Nicole said, pulling her hat off her head and brushing her hair back in an attempt to collect herself despite the nerves that now fluttered in her stomach. “Ladies.” She tipped the brim before stalking off towards the back of the barn, leaving the other two women standing awkwardly beside one another. 

“I-I should be getting back.” Chrissy said after a pause of silence, attempting to leave until Waverly grabbed her arm. 

“Wait, Chris! Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t me-“ 

“Waverly it’s fine.” Chrissy cut her off with a hint of harshness that made Waverly pull back. “I’ve got to get back to work.” 

Waverly nodded her head reluctantly as she released her grip on the girl who began to walk away before she turned around once more. 

“I know it’s been a while since you’ve been here but there are some good people in this town and Nicole may be the best of all of us. You shouldn’t be so keen to forget that.” 

Waverly watched the other girl retreat back to her post along the gate, shouting at riders as they prepared to start the main event before she climbed the bleachers and took her place beside Wynonna. The lights dimmed on the sides of the building, one bright spotlight illuminating the announcer who stood in the middle of the ring. The man started doing his normal introductions, Waverly unable to really concentrate on anything around her as the sinking feeling resonating in her stomach from Chrissy’s words tugged on her chest. Of course she knew there were good people in Purgatory. Surely they didn’t really think she thought she was too good for this place, for Nicole. Nicole wouldn’t think that would she?

“You okay baby girl?” Wynonna nudged her in the side. She could tell by the look on her face she was far away in her own mind and that usually meant something was weighing on her. 

“Huh?” Waverly questioned. “Oh yeah, sorry. I’m fine.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yep. Just dandy.” She smiled, one Wynonna could see right through but Waverly’s eyes instructed her not to keep asking so she reluctantly relented. 

The pair sat back as they watched the riders take their turns in the arena, Wynonna shouting more obnoxiously the more beer that flowed through her. 

The announcer took the center stage once more as the last rider limped his way out of the arena. 

“How about we give the guy a hand.” He instructed as a dull applause rang through the crowd. “Alright ladies and gentlemen, this sure has been fun but unfortunately we are down to our final rider of the night. Freight not though, tonight we’ve got a special treat for all y’all. Please welcome Purgatory's own Nicole Haught.” 

The crowd burst into applause, loud whistle calls and cheers ringing out across the stadium that were by far the loudest of the night. Waverly couldn’t help the small amount of pride that bloomed in her chest as Nicole waved to the crowd and offered them a dimpled grin. Chrissy was right, they really loved Nicole here and she couldn’t blame them. Nicole had been a rising star in the bull riding world, it was only common sense to think she’d finally made it to a more legendary status. 

“Wait what?” Wynonna asked, confusion written in her place for a reason Waverly couldn’t figure out. Surely Wynonna could figure Nicole was gone be last as she hadn’t ridden yet. “Why is Haught ridin?” 

“Uh what do you mean?” Waverly questioned like that answer was obvious. “Why would Nicole not ride?” 

“Maybe because she hasn’t ridden in like eight years.” Wynonna answered dumbfoundedly. “Maybe seven. Whichever. What the hell is she doing?”

Waverly felt her stomach drop before crawling back up to her throat. If Nicole hadn’t rode in that many years then that means..

“Nicole hasn’t ridden since before I left?!” Waverly questioned alarmingly as she gripped Wynonna’s arm, the stark realization of the situation spreading panic through her veins. If Nicole hasn’t ridden since she left then that means she’s eight years out of practice. It also means the only reason she’d even get on the bull is because of what Waverly said. She thought Waverly was challenging her. She’d spent years begging Nicole not to ride only to be the one to push her back on the bull when she’d finally gotten off. 

“And she’s ridin petey? Damn, girl must have a death wish.” Wynonna whistled nervously in a way that only filled Waverly with more dread. 

“Petey?” Waverly asked cautiously. 

“Petey is the baddest bull they got here. I think the longest anyone has ever rode em is like four seconds. In fact, he sent the last guy to the hospital with a fractured skull. They almost retired him after that. It was brutal. What the hell is she thinking?” Wynonna trailed off. 

Waverly’s heart hammered in her chest, the old anxieties she used to feel about Nicole’s bull riding smacking her right in the face as she watched the redhead saddle herself upon the beast in the distance. 

“Wynonna somebody has to stop her.” Waverly rushed out, grip tightening on the raven haired woman’s arm. 

“Waves calm down.” Wynonna tried to assure her, even if her own voice was riddled with nerves. The panic on her sister's face answered the question of exactly why Nicole was choosing now, after all this time, to get back on the bull and suddenly Wynonna didn’t feel the same about this feel good comeback story. “Even if you could convince Nicole to stop, the event is about to start. You’d never make it down there in time.” 

“Well I can at least try can’t I?” Waverly called out as she began to rush down the stairs of the bleachers, the sound of a loud buzzer promptly stopping her. 

The gate containing Nicole and the bull flew open, the crowd jumping to their feet collectively as the monster came barreling out of the cage. Waverly felt a sweep of lightheadedness circle her mind as time seemed to come to a stand still. She held her breath tightly as she watched the bull buck and bounce around the arena. 

Nicole gripped the ropes tightly, body swaying with the motion of the animal that gave her total control of herself and him. She felt her adrenaline soar through her, coursing down her limbs like a drug she’d been sober of for the past eight years.. Her body dipped low, the hand raised in the air balancing her skillfully as the beast continued to move about relentlessly. Any other time seconds ticked by quicker than you could count them but on a bull, time seemed to move slow as molasses. Her arms ripped and roared from the strain the task was putting on them, like blowing off the dust of an old baseball glove, and the fire that burned in her chest only made her push herself further. No one would blame her if she fell off early after getting back on for the first time in so many years but she was never one to do something half assed. Especially with the thought that out there Waverly was looking at her.

Waverly wanted to turn away, her anxiety begging her to turn around and close her eyes but her mind wouldn’t let her. It was like watching a train wreck, you knew what was coming and as much as you wanted to close your eyes right before the impact, you just couldn’t. Waverly had watched every fall Nicole had ever made and she could only suspect she was about to watch another. 

Finally a buzzer rang out above them letting Waverly release a shaky breath as everyone around them bursting into cheers. The moment of panic washing away as Nicole skillfully dismounted the bull. Of course she had come back after an 8 year hiatus and ridden the biggest bull in the barn for 8 seconds. Nothing could deter the redhead’s determination when she got it in her and with Waverly being the one who offered the challenge they both knew she’d die in that ring before she let her pride down. 

The brunette could only roll her eyes as she watched Nicole take her hat off and wave to the crowd, eyes shining bright with confidence as she scanned the arena. If Waverly didn’t know any better she’d swear Nicole somehow managed to pick her right out of the crowd of people, holding her line of sight with a cocky smirk as she placed her hat back on her head. 

That might of been why she never saw it coming. 

Suddenly the crowd gasped, Nicole’s smile faltering as she turned quickly behind her, the unmistakable echo of hooves beating the ground as Petey broke through the rodeo clowns efforts to round him up. Nicole barely had a chance to register what was happening, the large head of the best lowering just as he stepped into her. 

Waverly watched in horror, hand coming to cover her mouth, as the bull crashed into Nicole’s chest full force, sending the redhead flying to the ground. He stomped around her, dusting flying up everywhere and blocking the view of the crowd as the rodeo clowns corralled the bull once more. The dust settled around them as a sobering quiet blanketed the crowd. 

Waverly careened her head, eyes searching through the crowd that blocked her view as she caught a glimpse of red laying on the ground. She pushed through them, taking the steps two at a time until she was face to face with the riding arena. She distantly heard Wynonna call out Nicole’s name as her pulse throbbed in her ears and drowned out the surrounding noise. 

She choked back a sob that threatened to escape as she looked out before her at a sight she had always known she’d have to face someday. One that tattooed her mind and rattled her wildest nightmares anytime she thought of the rodeo. 

Nicole’s lifeless body buried in the dirt.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Am I early with a chapter?! 😱
> 
> I hope you guys like Wayhaught angst because this is 10,000 words of just that. 
> 
> You’ve got to get through the parts to reach paradise right? 
> 
> Please let me know what you think!

Waverly sat stoically in one of the plastic waiting room chairs, ones rather uncomfortable seeing as they are provided to people who are in need of a little comfort. Her eyes were fixed on the floor, mind far away from the hospital. She never thought she’d be in this position again, waiting on pins and needles in Purgatory General Hospital. Yet, here she was. 

She was eerily familiar with the pattern of the ceramic gloss floors, blue squares patterning around smaller white ones. It had been burned in her memory, ones she had traced over and over again while she sat in that very position. She had counted them during one particularly bad night where Waverly had sat and waited to find out if her wife had had her brains bashed in. There were 256 and after getting stomped on, Nicole had broken her arm and suffered a severe concussion during that fall. Waverly remembers because she had to pull over on the side of the road on the way home that night because Nicole was sick from the dizziness. She had cried, unable to continue driving as they sat on the side of the road. Waverly begged Nicole to quit riding through her sobs while the redhead said nothing. Nicole had only wrapped her in a hug and held her while she broke down. Waverly remembers that part the most clearly because it was the first time she’d been in the redhead’s embrace and didn’t feel any comfort at all. Mainly because she knew no matter what she said, how upset she got, Nicole wasn’t going to stop riding. 

Of course, Waverly didn’t have anyone but herself to blame for this one since Nicole wouldn’t have even been on the bull if it wasn’t for her poking. She reckoned Wynonna felt the same with the way she had angrily glared at her the entire ride over...and now in the waiting room. In her defense, or in an effort to bury her own guilt, she wasn’t sure, she hadn’t had a clue what her words would make Nicole do. How was she supposed to know Nicole wasn’t riding anymore? The redhead had only disregarded Waverly’s pleas for her to stop for years. Waverly had always assumed that would be one of the highlights of her leaving for Nicole. That she’d be able to freely ride whenever and whatever without the insistent nagging she usually had to endure. 

Wynonna angrily breathed out of her nose, breaking the silence they’d been sitting in. Waverly chanced a side glance at her sister, brown eyes sat slow and fixed on her harshly. The brunette quickly diverted her eyes away from the other woman and back to the tiles, best not to poke the beast. 

Plus Wynonna could huff and puff all she wants, Nicole ending up here really wasn’t Waverly’s fault. At least it made her feel better to rationalize it as such. She had only wanted to throw a dig at the woman, not have her get hurt because she wanted to defend her own pride. 

Now Waverly couldn’t get the image of Nicole being tossed around like a rag doll out of her mind like some ole silent picture show made just for her, one filled with her own personal idea of dread and horror. She guesses she can file that one away with the others of its kind, slow moving reenactments of every spill and every crash Nicole had ever taken. For the most part, they didn’t bother her much anymore, making random appearances when she’d stalk Nicole’s Facebook after a late night of drinking. 

Right now though, they all played at once. A jumbled mess of Nicole taking fall after fall, grunting out in pain while Waverly yelled for her through a silent crowd. That was something she always hated, the way the air would be sucked out of the entire building when someone would get bucked off. It was like everyone was holding their breath in expectancy for the worst, a silence so contrasting to the deafening cheers of moments before it would almost make a person think they’d lost their hearing. That is until they looked around the crowd and saw everyone wearing the same worried expression. The drowning silence, the pained stares of everyone around her always made Waverly even more sick to her stomach. Still today her pulse would raise a notch or two when the world around her got suddenly silent. 

Waverly swallowed the bile that sat in the middle of her throat as she stretched her neck in an effort to see around the nurse's station. 

“What the hell is taking so long?”

It was weird. Waverly had gone eight years without seeing the redhead and they’d passed rather quickly towards the end but every minute that went by where she didn’t get to see for herself that Nicole was okay felt like an eternity, her patience, or lack thereof, gnawing at her and making her feel like she could combust. 

“Waves we literally just got here.” Wynonna exasperated for the second time in the 30 minutes since they’d been led to take a seat. “Hell by the way you drove we probably beat the ambulance here.” 

“Hey… I drove as the situation permitted.” Waverly defended weakly. “No one got hurt did they?” 

“I don’t know Waves, you didn’t see just how close you got to Stephanie when you peeled out of the parking lot.” Wynonna chuckled. “I think you might have clipped her with the side view mirror.” 

“Hopefully so,” Waverly grumbled. She buried her face into her hands and rubbed it earnestly, bright lights jumping in the darkness as she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. Her leg began to shake nervously in anticipation, she couldn’t take much more of the waiting. Every moment that ticked by Waverly’s unrelenting anxiousness only conjured up an even worse fate for Nicole than the one before it. 

“Alright, that’s enough of this.” She said loudly as she hopped up from her seat and attempted to flag down a nurse. “Excuse me, mam! Excu-“ 

“Mrs. Haught?” A voice called out from the hall as a tall woman in a lab coat made her way towards the waiting room. 

“Yes!” Waverly exclaimed instinctively, too caught up in her own nerves to notice the implications of her answer. “That’s me! Mrs. Haught… Well technically Earp, I guess.” 

“Uhhh, I’m looking for the wife of Nicole Haught?” The doctor clarified.

“Yes, that’s me. I’m her wife but we’re not-...” Waverly fumbled. “Nicole is my…-Nicole is… She’s mine.” She finished awkwardly with a sheepish smile. 

“Alrighty then.” The overwhelmed doctor blew out. “Well, Mrs…. Earp. I am Dr. Pressman, but you can call me Shae.”

“Is Nicole- is she okay?” Waverly choked out through her mounting nerves as she gripped the woman’s extended hand. 

“She’s fine,” Shae assured her with a small grimace from the death grip Waverly still had on her hand. 

Waverly dropped the doctor’s hand and placed her own on her chest as she let out a shaky breath she’d been holding since she saw Nicole’s reflection in that bull’s eyes. She still had to see for herself in order for her heart to return to a normal rate but the doctor’s echoed words in her head soothed her for now. 

She is fine. 

Safe. 

Not dead. 

It was odd, the first time Nicole had been hurt and the doctor had delivered Waverly the all-clear, she had been so full of sweet relief that she’d cried. However the fourth and fifth times that all-clear had been issued, they only stoked at a deep-seated sense of impending doom that had been growing in the brunette’s stomach and her tears had quickly gone from thankful to ones of pure foreboding. She was always thankfully Nicole hadn’t been seriously injured but the clear bill of health had only given the redhead more reason to get back up and literally get back on the bull and with an even bigger sense of determination than before.

“These bulls know they can’t keep Purgatory baddest bull rider down for long.” She’d always say, as if that would really consoled a terrified Waverly. It always felt like serious injury, or worse, was inevitable and every time Nicole would saddle back up it felt like the redhead was running faster and faster straight towards it with Waverly just standing on the sidelines waiting for it to happen. 

Damn, she hated the rodeo. 

“Thank God! I was really gonna kill that asshole if she died.” Wynonna said seriously as she plopped herself back into her chair with a loud thud. The raven haired woman rarely showed emotion but Waverly could see her own relief reflected back into her eyes. She had seen Nicole’s bullriding take a toll on her sister just the same as her and she knew Wynonna had been overly anxious by the way she had chewed all her fingernails off. 

Waverly cringed and offered Shae a silent apology as the doctor only chuckled and shook her head. 

“So she’s going to be fine?” Waverly asked for reassurance. She’d lost so many people it was still hard to believe when things like this happened and everything turned out alright. Especially with Nicole. Waverly figured she could only test death so many times before he comes for you. 

“Don’t worry, she’s going to be totally fine.” Shae offered. “She’s going to have a pretty nasty bruise on her sternum where the bull’s head made its impact. We gave her something for the pain tonight but I imagine she’ll be pretty sore tomorrow. She also has a mild concussion but nothing to cause alarm. Just keep an eye on her tonight and make sure she takes it easy the next few days.”

Waverly almost laughed at the last part. Nicole Haught didn’t know how to take it easy, concussion or not she knew she’d be hard pressed to make the redhead actually stop and rest like the doctor ordered. It was one of the things the pair had frequently squabbled about during their marriage. Sometimes it felt like Nicole rather be out working livestock than at home eating dinner with her wife. Waverly would always tell her if she loved them damned cows so much she shoulda married one. Nicole would always grumble that they’d probably bitch a lot less than Waverly did and then the screaming match would be on. They’d fight for the next hour, repeating the same lines they had the previous times they’d argued about the topic and then Nicole would give in and apologize which is something she always did in their marriage. Nicole was always the one to apologize first. In the beginning Waverly found it noble, she would melt under the sweet ooh’s and ahh’s of Nicole’s coy apology. However, it didn’t take long for her to realize the redhead was only doing such things so she didn’t have to talk about the topic anymore. The apologies were hollow and things never changed. Nicole would come home for dinner the next day just the save face and then she’d fall back into the same routine of working late into the night. 

Now that Waverly was a working professional herself she could understand Nicole’s need to throw herself into what she loved. Waverly had found herself working in her office well into the night on many occasions and she hadn’t missed the irony when Champ had griped and complained about it. 

However when she was 18 and not yet ready for what the real world was bringing her, Waverly couldn’t grasp why Nicole wasn’t throwing herself into her waiting wife instead of the farm work.

“Can I see her?” Waverly asked as Shae nodded her head. 

“You go ahead babygirl.” Wynonna waved her off. “All this commotion has really killed my buzz. I’m going to get my flask from the car.”

“Mam! Please don’t bring that flask in here!” Shae called out but Wynonna only ignored her and headed out of the automated glass doors. “She’s going to bring that flask in here isn’t she?”

“You don’t know Wynonna do you?” Waverly laughed softly before following the doctor to the back of the hospital. 

“Now, if she seems a little loopy that’s the meds.” Shae informed Waverly as they stood outside Nicole’s door. “Also she’s a bit aggravated about being here but that’s not the medicine. I suspect that’s the-“

“Stubbornness.” Waverly finished. “Trust me, I know all about that.” 

“Of course.” Shae smiles softly. “Please call if you have any questions, or if she starts showing any unusual signs. Outside that you are free to take her home.” 

“Thank you so much Shae.” Waverly smiled softly before she pushed her way into Nicole’s room. 

The redhead sat at the end of the bed, back to Waverly as she pulled her shirt back over her shoulders. She huffed out in annoyance as she fumbled with the buttons, grimacing as she lifted her arms higher and higher. The nurse had said the painkillers would kick in at anytime but obviously they didn’t work as quick as she thought, not that she thought she needed them anyways. 

To say Nicole was annoyed when she woke up to the paramedics strapping her to the gurney would be an understatement. If there hadn’t been four of them to hold her down, she was sure she’d been able to get free and show them just how fine she really was. An ambulance ride and an X-ray just for the doctor to tell her she had a bruised sternum was just a waste of money and time in her opinion. It wasn’t anything she could tell her by looking at herself. Plus now she had to deal with the embarrassment of the entire town seeing her hauled off in her own special injury parade. She’d been better off taking her bruised ego and sternum alike straight to her house and drinking it off, woulda been cheaper anyway. That way she could have forgotten the fool she’d made of herself while trying to prove a point to Waverly. 

How stupid. 

What did she really think was going to happen?

She had just felt so much fire to disprove the other woman’s assumptions about her, that she was nothing but a failed rodeo clown just like Waverly’s old man. She knew she was much more than that and didn’t really matter what waverly thought of her anyways. Did she think she was going to be able to miraculously win over the other woman by riding a bull for 8 seconds?...Not that she wanted that anyways. 

“Stupid.” She whispered to herself. 

“Uhhhm” Waverly cleared her throat, making her presence in the room known as Nicole startled and turned her head to find the source. She rolled her eyes when she saw Waverly standing at the head of the bed looking at her with worried eyes. “Hey.” 

Nicole turned her attention back to her shirt, her hurt pride not letting her look at Waverly for too long. She could go without seeing Waverly’s “I told you so” face. She’d seen it enough throughout their marriage to know exactly what it looks like and every time she had to face it was a reminder that Nicole had failed at something. 

“If you’re here to yell at me about divorce papers can we do it tomorrow instead? I’ve got a killer headache.” She said, voice exhausted. 

“I’m not here for that Nicole.” Waverly countered as she moved to stand in front of the redhead. “I’m your next of kin remember?” 

She wanted to tell her she was there for her, there because the thought of Nicole laying on that ground not moving had nearly wrecked her. That she had cussed out the paramedics because they wouldn’t let her ride and the thought of being apart from her in that moment had driven her mad. 

However, that wasn’t something she was ready to admit to herself so she decided against it. 

“Right. Well you can go now. Doc says I’m fine.” Nicole huffed as she continued to fiddle with her buttons, a failed attempt that lead her to nearly ripping the shirt in frustration. “Goddamned buttons.”

“Can I-“ Waverly ignored Nicole’s instructions as she points at where Nicole’s shirt was hanging open. The redhead furrowed her brow until she realized what Waverly was asking. She paused before nodding, giving the brunette permission to move closer as she situated herself between Nicole’s knees. 

Waverly leaned against the table, close enough to Nicole she could see her breathing. A motion that calmed Waverly with every subtle rise and fall. 

“Wynonna told me you haven’t ridden since I left.” Waverly stated softly. 

Nicole wasn’t even sure how to reply, unknowing of if Waverly was even looking for one. She tried to turn her head away but unwillingly turned back as hands began to slowly snap her buttons. Nicole couldn’t look away from the younger woman, gazed glued to her every movement as she focused on Nicole’s shirt. Her brain took note of Waverly, quickly retracing every feature she had nearly forgotten throughout the years, ones that would slip from her memory before she’d even realize they weren’t there. She’d just lay down at night and when the brunette would enter her subconscious like it routinely did she’d realize the memory had become muddled, her face not as clear as it once was.

. From the way her brow scrunched when she was concentrating to the way her tongue darted out just slightly to wet her lips, her mind painted Waverly into her memory like it was coloring in the outline of a picture that had faded with time.

A strange sense of intimacy hung between them, the air sparking and crackling around them with every incidental brush of Waverly’s fingers against her bare skin. There was a tenderness to it, something so sincere that it rattled the both of them. 

Waverly could feel Nicole’s unrelenting gaze burning into her and it made her nervous, a flighting in her stomach that made her hands tremble ever so slightly. 

Nicole’s breath hitched in response, her pulse racing in a way that reminded her of when she’d finally gotten the courage to kiss Waverly for the first time, really kiss her. She remembers it because she’d paused just before their lips met to take note of how crazy her heart was beating in her chest. 

It had been in her truck, the first day she’d gotten it after working for a whole two summers to save the money. She’d been so proud of the truck, a 1978 Ford F100. It probably wasn’t nothing special to some but to Nicole it was everything. 

Well technically Waverly was everything, but ber truck was a second. 

She’d been so excited to show it off, riding around burning gas just so people would see it. She’d been beaming when she drove down her gravel drive to show her parents, only for them to brush her off like they so often did. That why when Waverly had scooted across the bench seat and boasted about how proud she was of Nicole and how cool her truck was, the redhead couldn’t help but lean over and plant one on her. 

Waverly nervously snapped the top button, keeping her eyes trained on Nicole’s collar in an effort to buy herself more time. For what, she wasn’t sure. She ran her hands down the flaps in an attempt to smooth the fabric and tame her racing heart as the redhead looked down at her quizzically. She patted Nicole’s shoulders with finality before inevitably locking eyes with her. 

Soft brown irises met Nicole riddled with emotions she wasn’t expecting, too many to even make sense of. Although they were blanketed with a sense of sadness. Waverly ran her hands up and down the top of Nicole’s chest quickly as her eyes began to water and she cursed silently to herself. 

“You scared the shit outta me.” Waverly whispered, so soft Nicole almost didn’t hear it. She felt her heart wrench as Waverly covered her face with her hands, shoulders shaking slightly. She knew Waverly’s apprehensions about her bull riding, knew the toll it had taken on the other woman and she hated to see her in the same position again. That’s why Nicole had quit riding, she hated the guilt she felt over never letting it go when Waverly wanted her to, when Waverly had needed her to. 

At the time she’d been young, she considered herself to have everything, the bull riding and her dream girl. Which is why when Waverly had asked her to stop she had completely rebutted the idea. How could she give up something she loved so dearly? She realized how when Waverly walked out of her life. Of course, it was a bit too late by then and there was nothing she could do to wash away the heartache she’d caused Waverly. 

After that Nicole lost her passion for the sport, unable to conjure up the excitement she held for it at one time so she let it go, just like she had Waverly. 

Without thinking, Nicole instinctively wrapped her arms tightly around Waverly and pulled the brunette towards her. 

To both of their surprise Nicole felt no resistance as Waverly met her front and practically melted into her chest, burying her face in Nicole’s shoulder and staining the fabric of her shirt darker with tears. The embrace held a soft sincerity to it that the pair hadn’t felt since before they separated. By then their displays of affection had become hollow, almost robotic as they both came to their own realizations that their relationship was over. Nicole had hated it, the notion posing the question of how’d they’d gotten to that place every time they touched. 

The feeling of holding Waverly again now, actually feeling the warmth and acceptance of the embrace coming from the brunette while she was in her arms nearly took Nicole’s breath away. 

“I’m actually kinda surprised you care.” Nicole chuckled heavily. For once since she’d arrived she wasn’t trying to dig at Waverly, her voice laced with a truthfulness that hurt them both. 

“Of course I care.” Waverly argued softly, sound muffled as she spoke into the redhead’s body. Nicole ran her hands up and down the girl’s back methodically as she calmed her. 

Waverly knew she should pull away but she couldn’t. She’d stopped being upset a while ago. However the sense of safety that she’d only ever felt with Nicole had blanketed her as soon as she could smell the vanilla on her skin. That feeling was too enticing and suddenly she realized just how deprived she was of it, just how much her soul yearned for it. 

It scared the shit out of her but it also made her never want to leave. 

“Haught!” Wynonna called out loudly as she rammed through the door and sent the heavy wood to bang against the wall behind it. 

The loud noise startled the pair as Waverly and Nicole jumped apart quickly, Wynonna dousing the air between them as only she could and bringing them back to their actual reality. 

“Oh my god Haught! We were so worried about you.” Wynonna exclaimed, a pitch way to loud to resemble anything like an inside voice. She pushed Waverly aside and crashed into Nicole, seemingly unaware of the moment she’d just interrupted. 

So, right on par for Wynonna. 

She pulled back and slapped the redhead in the chest, Nicole choking on air as pain shot through her body at the contact. 

“Nonna be careful!” Waverly shouted and pointed at Nicole. “Her chest, remember?”

“Ohhhhhhh right.” Wynonna’s eyes became comically big and she winced at Nicole. “I’m sorry dude. I forgot that fast. Ole drunky brain I reckon.”

“It’s-... it’s okay.” Nicole choked out hoarsely, every breath ripping through her painfully. She’d definitely have to get Wynonna back later for that one. “How much have you had to drink tonight Earp?” She coughed. 

“Well I'm still standing so I’d say not enough.” Wynonna quipped as she pulled her flask out and shook it at Nicole. The redhead eagerly reached for the metal before Waverly stopped her with a lingering hand on her forearm, her taunt forearm ripped with muscles and-

Nope. 

Stop. 

Focus. 

“No. No.” She said with high pitch as she shook her head and pulled Nicole’s arm back. “You can’t drink alcohol with that medicine Nicole.”

“Sorry sis but you can’t rag on ole red here anymore.” Wynonna slurred as she tossed her arm around Nicole’s shoulder and put the flask up to her mouth. “I think she’s allowed to do what she wants.” 

Nicole eyed Waverly for a moment, contemplating the risk she’d be taking by pissing the brunette off even more. 

Fuck it. 

A wide grin broke across her face as she let Wynonna pour the warm brown liquid sloppily into her mouth. She swallowed with a wince before she looked back at Waverly with a challenging gleam. 

”I sure am. “ 

Andddd there goes the moment, Waverly thought. 

“That’s fine.” Waverly scoffed as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked pointedly at Wynonna. “But when you’re helping her in the house later by yourself because she can’t get herself inside don’t call me.”

“No, no.” Wynonna shook her head firmly. “No can do babygirl. I’m not babysitting tonight. Doc’s waiting for me at his house as we speak” She shrugged. 

“But the doctor says someone’s supposed to monitor Nicole and make sure she doesn’t slip into a coma or something.” 

“Okay, dramatic...And ain’t you free for the night? Can’t you do it?” Wynonna said with a wink. Maybe she should feel bad, casting her best friend off on her estranged ex wife, but she didn’t. Waverly eyes her harshly as Wynonna held her hands up in surrender. “Come on Waves, you know mama needs her lovin”

“Gross”

“Bleh” 

Nicole and Waverly stole nervous glances from one another, eyes fleeting from side to side at the implications of what Wynonna‘s absence meant for them. 

They were suppose to go to Nicole’s house

…alone?

..just the two of them?

They’d barely said two nice things to one another in ten years and now they were supposed to spend an entire night together?

“Uhh”

“You ain’t go to Waves.” Nicole rushed out, running her hand through her hair as coolly as she could. “It ain’t nothin’ I’ve ain’t done before. I’ll be fine.”

“No..I’ll-Uh… I’ll do yo- it. I’ll do it.” Waverly struggled to get out passed her already fluttering stomach. “I’ll do it, monitor you I mean. It’s fine.” 

“You sure?” Nicole asked. 

“Of course. It’ll be great.” Waverly said, failing miserably to make that believable Nicole or herself. 

“Whatever you say Waves.” Nicole laughed. If she could run out of the room alone she would but she knew there was no chance in hell Waverly was letting her go home alone. It was aggravating, but Nicole could help the surge she felt in her heart at the thought. 

“Great!” Wynonna clapped her hands together before grabbing Nicole’s arm, pulling her out of the room. “Now, let's get the hell outta here.”

The night air hit Nicole like a freight train. She wasn’t sure if it was the contrast of the dark night to the bright lights of the hospital or Wynonna’s swift movement but suddenly she could feel the pain pills that nurse had raved about. Her head began to swim as she stumbled sidewise slightly, a small frame bracketing up next to her and wrapping a slim arm around her waist. 

“Woah there cowboy.” Waverly warned as she pushed her body further against Nicole’s frame order to hold her up. Nicole smiled at the nickname, one she hadn’t heard in years as she straightened up. 

“Sorry” she mumbled. 

“So you got her then?” Wynonna asked and then nodded her head without giving Waverly a chance to answer. “Great! See ya in the mornin baby girl.”

Wynonna jogged across the parking lot, the door of the car swinging open just as she approached it. She climbed into the backseat quickly, sliding all across until she sat in the middle and could lean into the front between the two seats. 

“You know I always ride shotgun Perry! What the hell?” She whispered yelled as she punched the guy’s shoulder harshly. 

“This is my car Wynonna!” 

“Shhhhh!” Chrissy motioned loudly. “Will you two shut the hell up? Wynonna, how did it go?” 

“Piece of cake.” She blew off with a wave of her hand. “Told Waves I had a date with Doc and that she’d have to watch over Haught, worked like a charm.”

“Great!” 

“You guys have a sick obsession with their relationship.” Perry accused, chuckling to himself until he caught the glaring look from the two women. 

“It’s not a sick obsession!” Chrissy retorted defensively. “This is why you’re never invited to girls night. You just don’t get us.”

“1. I didn’t want to be invited to girls night.” Perry corrected as he held up his index finger. 

“Yeah, okay.” Wynonna snorted with a roll of her eyes. 

“And 2. They look pretty happy to me with their own lives. Y’all should probably just leave it alone.” 

“That ain’t happy.” Wynonna trailed off as she stared out the window across the lot. She smiled to herself as she watched Waverly struggle to get Nicole in her truck. She was red in the face, clear frustration written on her features as the redhead laughed at the smaller woman’s poor attempts. She’s seen her sister happy and the fake smiles and annoyingly cheerful voice she’d masked herself with these past few years damn sure wasn’t it. 

“So y’all’s plan is to what? Push them together as much as possible?”

“Uh exactly.”

“How’s that supposed to work?” 

“Waverly and Nicole love each other, they just don’t realize it yet. All we’re doing is givin’ them the opportunity to see it. We push them together and Wayhaught does the rest.” Chrissy clarified. 

“Way-what now?”

“Wayhaught. Waverly and Haught.” Chrissy smiles proudly. 

“I….. hate that a lot.” Wynonna cringed as she stuck out her tongue. “Please never say it again.” 

“Whatever.” Chrissy scoffed. “You just hate love.”

“I do not hate love!” Wynonna fiended offense. “As a matter of fact, mama’s got a penciled in appointment for some lovin’ right now.”

“Ewww..no.”

“Please stop sayin’ that.”

Wynonna bust out laughing before she tipped her flask back and watched the two women fade into small specks as they rode out of the parking lot. 

She sure hoped Chrissy was right. 

——

“Do you remember the way?” Nicole patronized, earning a stark glare from the brunette. 

“I think I’ve driven home from the hospital enough to do it with my eyes closed.” She retorted harshly. 

“Whatever.” Nicole huffed as she leaned against the door and laid her head on the window to look out into the passing night. 

Back to diggin’ they go she reckoned. 

The ride through town was silent, Nicole bunched against one end of the cab while Waverly was leaned against the other. She didn’t mind it though, the silence. It gave Waverly a chance to live in her own head without interruption as she winded through backroads that carried enough emotions to drown her, driving her towards the one place that holds more pain than the rest of the town. 

Their house. 

Nicole’s now, Waverly reckoned. She’d give just about anything right now for Nicole to have moved after she’d left so she didn't have to face her own past. 

Instead she could nearly see a ghost of herself turning out of Nicole’s long driveway on her way out of town as Waverly turned Nicole’s truck onto the dirt path. She locked eyes with the passing memory and a shudder ran up her spine at the regret she saw in her own eyes. 

She pumped the brakes accidentally making Nicole lurch forward and slap her hand on the dash in order to brace herself. 

“Shit, Waves.” She exclaimed before putting a hand over her chest and leaning back again. 

“Sorry” Waverly apologized before she kept driving. 

She could faintly see the light of the porch through the trees that lined the long driveway. Waverly had hated that drive, the dirt turning to bog mud every time a hard rain passed through. She’d begged Nicole to pave it but the redhead said that would ruin the ambiance of the place. 

Nicole had been right. 

Driving up the path now Waverly realized just how out of place gravel would look winding through the wooded path to the home and she found herself appreciating the authenticity of it all.

Waverly’s heart began to beat a little faster as the house came into view. Like a relic from the past the house looked just the same, an old wooden cabin with a rickety front porch sat overlooking a clear cut meadow that surrounded the house on all sides. The house was dark wood built by Nicole’s grandfather, aged by time and weather and worn in a way that you just knew could tell a story if it could talk. Small touches had been added by families past, a plant hung here or a porch board replaced there, new wood sticking out like a sore thumb against the dark backdrop. Most recently it looked like Nicole had painted the chimney, a reddish brown color. It was nice.

Across the way sat a barn, doubling in size from the old house. Nicole had helped build that addition with her dad when her parents were still around. She remembers because she’d always swing by and scoop Waverly up from her house when their interactions would get too heated and Nicole felt like she just needed to get away. Waverly hated seeing her hurt but loved that she was the one Nicole ran to when she was. 

Waverly could see Nicole’s old truck and tractor parked underneath the shelter as she pulled up to the house. It was a view she’d come accustomed in the past and it looked hauntingly the same as it did when she’d looked at it in her rearview on the way out all those years ago. 

She put the truck in park before turning off it off, the engine sputtering and tinkering in the silent night air. She could only look ahead at the side door she’d walked out of, her past self showing up once more and drawing her back into the pain she’d felt at the click of the knob. She watched herself begin to cry, turning back around and placing her hand on the door before pausing and turning back away. She ran passed the truck window, disappearing behind her as the loud slap of metal drew her attention back to the front. 

“You comin?” Nicole called out. 

Waverly startled before quickly nodding her head and climbing out of the truck. She’d been so lost she hadn’t even heard the passenger door open or closed. 

“Sorry, Sorry.” She rushed out as she clambered out of the truck and walked over to Nicole. 

“Y'alright?” 

“Yeah Sorry, I was just...thinking is all.” Waverly said as sure as she could. 

“Well alright then” Nicole eyed her suspiciously. Whatever Waverly was thinking about must have been weighing really heavily on her mind because she looked like she'd seen a ghost. “Come on now.”

It was a weird thing, being invited into the house you’d once called your own home. Waverly bounced nervously behind Nicole as the redhead fiddled with the keys before finally getting the door unlocked. She pulled it open and stood to the side to let Waverly pass. 

“After you.” She instructed, ever the gentlewoman. 

Waverly stopped right at the entrance of the door, eyes wide and jaw dropped in amazement as she looked around. 

Despite not changing a lick on the outside, the inside of the house was nearly unrecognizable. Most of the walls in the front of the house had been knocked down, opening up the entirety of the floor in an open plan that encompassed the living room and the kitchen. Brand new paint covered the walls in contrast to the furniture that now sat centered around the fireplace. The kitchen held new up to date appliances, an island like Waverly had always dreamed of having sat in the middle of the floor with pots and pans hanging above its wooden top. The place was simple, seemingly bare of anything that wasn’t a necessity. It was the complete opposite of when she’d left it but a place so Nicole it still made Waverly feel at home. 

“It’s uh, it’s changed a bit since you left.” Nicole spoke out from beside her while she nervously watched Waverly say nothing, only making Nicole more jittery. 

“Nicole this…” She trailed off in wonderment. “Wow.”

“Yeah?” Nicole smiled, chest filling proudly. She had worked tirelessly on the home and although she was unsure why it mattered what Waverly thought of it, it felt good to know she liked it. 

“Yes.” She breathed out. “This is beautiful.”

“Thanks.” She said sincerely as she looked around the renovated room herself. “I figured after you were gone I could finally decorate the place the way I wanted to after my parents left.” 

“You could have done that while I was here ya know?” Waverly clarified. “This was our home, not just mine.”

“Yeah but you were so excited about having your own place to decorate, I couldn’t tell you no.” Nicole smiled. It was true, one thing Nicole used to be was a sucker for Waverly Earp. What the girl wanted, she got. Even if Nicole hated the clutter the other girl’s style brought, she couldn’t refuse any of the pointless pictures or throw pillows she’d come bringing home. 

“How long did it take to do all this?” Waverly asked. 

“An entire year of working every night after work.” Nicole answered, staring off as she remembered just how much work went into the place, how much pain she felt while she ripped through every wall and tore apart every piece of furniture in the place. It had hurt, god had it, to erase any remembrance of Waverly out of her home but she needed to do it, needed the escape and once she was done she was glad she had. It felt like she could breathe for the first time in years. 

“It was worth it though. Your memory had painted every part of this damned town. I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing you. The least I could do was come home to somewhere that didn’t do the same.” Nicole admitted honestly, a hauntedness in her voice that Waverly could feel in her chest. “Uhh, anyways. Yeah, about a year I say.” She coughed nervously, her vulnerability on full display and making her squirm. 

“Well, it looks really beautiful.” Waverly’s voice cracked, unable to meet Nicole’s eyes in fear she’d see the same hurt in them that she felt in her chest. “You did a great job.”

“I really did.” Nicole said as she placed her hands on her hips and continued to admire her work. 

“Alright, maybe try a little humbleness huh?” Waverly quipped as she elbowed Nicole in her side and pushed passed her towards the kitchen. 

Nicole grabbed her bottle of whiskey from the kitchen counter and plopped herself down onto the couch, head beginning to pound at the quick movement. She tossed the cap of the bottle on the coffee table before turning it up and chugging the warm liquid. If she had to have a pounding head and spend the night with Waverly she could at least make sure she didn’t remember it. 

“CJ!” Waverly called out loudly, choosing to ignore Nicole’s choice of drink as she rifled through the kitchen cabinets, opening and closing each door with a thud that resonated between Nicole’s ears. 

“CJ!” She barked. “Nicole where is your cat food? I know she’s gotta be hungry.”

“Waves.” Nicole said wearily with closed eyes as she tried to stop the pounding in her head by taking another gulp of whiskey. 

“CJ!”

“Waverly!” Nicole finally blurred out, earning the other woman’s attention. “You can quit all that yellin’. CJ ain’t coming.”

“Why? Is she outside?” Waverly moved to open the door until she caught Nicole’s reluctant eyes. 

“CJ is gone. She died a few years back.” 

“What?! ” Waverly trailed off, tone soft and riddled with disbelief. How could life had changed this much? “What-Uh… what happened?” 

“Snake, just like we always figured it would be.” Nicole answered with a soft smile. “I always said she was too wild for this world.” 

Calamity Jane, CJ for short, had wandered up onto their home as a small kitten, starving and near death right after Waverly had moved in. They had been relaxing on the front porch swing when a faint meow had caught Waverly’s attention. She made Nicole climb under the porch to retrieve him and when the brunette had seen his skinny, bare boned body she knew she had to help him. Nicole had been reluctant at first, not too keen on cats herself, but one look from Waverly with those sad round eyes she quickly changed her mind. From then on CJ had been a staple of their family, sleeping on his bed next to them and following Nicole around the farm climbing up trees and chasing down every thing that came by. She had always been a wild one and Nicole had always knew she’d meet her fate one day sooner rather than later with how freely she lived her life. Of course, knowing it was coming didn't make it hurt any less when it happened. 

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Waverly offered weakly. It had been her cat too and as much as the news hurt she didn’t feel like she had any right to be upset about it. 

She had left them both after all. 

She stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do with hands clasped in front of her until a picture on the mantle caught her eyes before she made her way over to it to pick it up. 

The same girl that she’d saw Nicole with earlier at the rodeo sat in front of a blue backdrop, a school picture Waverly assumed. Suddenly she remembered the family like sense she had gotten from Stephanie and Nicole and her stomach turned upside down. 

“You’re really good with her you know?” Waverly said as she turned the picture to show Nicole who was she talking about. 

“Oh yeah that’s Caroline. She won the little kid bull riding at the rodeo earlier!” Nicole bragged proudly. “It was awesome. She rode that thing for five seconds.”

“I know, I saw y’all.” Waverly smiled as she put the picture back on the mantle. “Makes sense though, her mom has been known to ride a bull a time or two. She must get it natural.”

“Who? Stephanie?” Nicole snorted a chuckle before she took another sip of whiskey, head buzzing as the liquid started to take effect. “I don’t think Stephanie has ever gotten on a bull in her entire life.”

“Not Stephanie silly, you.” Waverly clarified before Nicole busted out laughing, doubling over as her eyes began to water. 

“Wait, Wait, Wait.” Nicole waved her hand as she tried to collect herself. “You think-... you think Stephanie and I-..you think we had a kid?” Her laughter started once more as her stomach began to cramp and she grabbed it with her hand. “Oh shit Waves, that’s a good one.”

“So y’all didn’t-“

“Hell no we didn’t have a kid.” Nicole said as she dried her eyes and her laughter finally subsided for good. “Why the hell would we have a kid together?”

“I don’t know.” Waverly shrunk, realizing just how silly she’d been to think so to begin with. “Y’all seemed really happy at the rodeo. I thought maybe y’all had done some sort of IVF or something.”

“Waves, Stephanie got knocked up by some bastard that skipped town as soon as Caroline was born. I knew she was having a hard time so I offered to help her out, babysit from time to time. Caroline ended up loving bull riding so I’ve been helping her learn how to. She actually kinda reminds me of you when you were little, all independent and determined to show the world something, anything.” 

“So you and Stephanie aren’t together?” Waverly questioned, with a little more relief in her voice than she wanted Nicole to hear. 

“God no!” Nicole huffed. “Sure me and Steph have kept each other company from time to time, you know when it’s been awhile and you just need a little-“

“Alright!” Waverly cut her off quickly with a hand in the air, unable to stomach how far into detail Nicole was willing to go about the time she shared with the other woman. “I think I get it.” 

“Waverly Earp, are you-.. were you jealous?” Nicole smirked. 

“Pssh, you wish.” Waverly rolled her eyes. That’s something she’d never admit to herself or anyone else. Especially not Nicole. 

“You are so jealous.” Nicole gasped, hand on her chest in mock scandalization. “Is it because she’s the first person I ever really kissed?” 

“Hey! That was me, and you know-“ Waverly started until she saw the taunting grin on Nicole’s face. “You’re just trying to work me up!”

“You shouldn’t make it so easy.” Nicole shrugged as she tipped the bottle back. 

Waverly turned her attention back to the mantle and picked up another picture. It was one she recognized instantly. Nicole was dressed down in her best suit, wearing one of her signature dimpled grins as Wynonna hung around her neck wearing a smile just a big. 

“Hey is this from our-..”

“Wedding, Yes.” Nicole finished without even looking up, body now relaxed into the cushion as she began to slouch down. Tell tale signs she was really feeling the alcohol. 

“God y’all look so young!” Waverly pointed out with a smile. Sometimes she feels like she hasn’t aged any and then she’s see pictures of herself or other people she grew up with and she realizes just how much life has taken its toll on them all. Nicole’s face much brighter, eyes much more innocent and hopefully in the picture than the ones she wore now. 

“We were.” Nicole added. 

“Do you remember how hot it was that day? I can nearly see the sweat through your suit.” She chuckled. 

“Oh trust me, I remember. Wynonna never lets me forget about the sunburn she suffered. Says if she gets skin cancer it’s all my fault.” Nicole rolled her eyes. The oldest Earp says it was all for not now, but Nicole decided to leave off that last part. 

“Oh you know she’s all talk.” Waverly traced her finger over the glass that covered the picture. “She wouldn’t have missed that for the world.”

“She’d be mad to hear you talkin like that. You know she has a heartless image to uphold.” Nicole warned with a smile. 

“Heartless my ass.” Waverly scoffed. “God do you remember how mad Gus was that day? I really thought she was gone ring our necks and Curtis! Oh god Curtis couldn’t even look at you.” She said excitedly, lost in her own reminiscing. 

Waverly Earp had known since she was 15 that she wanted to marry Nicole. As she got older she use to imagine what their life would be like, dreams of TV dinners and late night love making offering a normalcy neither girl had ever known. That’s why when Nicole got down on bended knee the night Waverly graduated high school and asked the brunette to marry her with her grandma’s ring Waverly had eagerly accepted. They had attempted to keep it hidden as long as possible, not yet ready to have their bubble busted by the scrutiny they knew they’d get from everyone else. That is until Gus found Waverly’s ring in the wash and laid right into them. It was the same thing they heard from every person after that, that they were too young to get married. That they didn’t know what real love was,what being married to someone would mean. That they were rushing into things, they only had the rest of their lives to get married. At the time Waverly thought Gus was just being a hypocrite, seeing as she had done the exact same thing with her Uncle Curtis. Now though Waverly would tell someone looking to make that decision the same thing Curtis and Gus and told her. 

Don’t do it. 

That’s just the thing about it though, some lessons you’ve got to live through to learn from. Unfortunately learning that their love they believed to be invincible was not enough to hold their marriage together. 

In retrospect, how foolish of them to believe that anyway. 

“Yeah well at least they cared enough about you to be mad about it.” Nicole said neutrally, eyes glassed over as she stared straight ahead into the soot covered chimney. 

By the time Waverly and Nicole had gotten married her parents had been long gone, leaving Nicole the house and a few hundred bucks to “hold her over” until she could “figure out how to survive” on her own. They had told her when she turned 18 they were through with having to look after her, that they could finally start living for themselves since she was grown. If it hadn’t hurt so bad Nicole probably would have laughed at that because her parents had checked out and started living for themselves a long time before they actually left. 

The pair of them had never really been proactive parents, too wrapped up in their own selves to ever come to Nicole’s basketball games or honor programs. It had taken a while but Nicole had eventually realized that maybe they never wanted her to begin with, maybe she was just a mistake that meant they were stuck together. When she was little that idea hurt, but as she got older and realized she could disappear for days without them knowing, their lack of attention was more or less beneficial. She could escape for days at a time, roaming the Earp land and camping under the stars with Waverly without anyone ever knowing she was gone. 

Eventually Nicole was so wrapped up by Waverly’s love she didn’t even know she was missing her parent’s. 

Waverly cringed as Nicole took another sip from the bottle and spilled some of the liquid down the front of her shirt. The redhead looked down and giggled quietly to herself as she sloppily wiped it away 

“How about we take it easy there cowboy?” Waverly offered as she slowly took the bottle from Nicole and sat it across the coffee table from her. She sat down beside the redhead as she laid her head on the back of the couch and closed her eyes. She mumbled something Waverly couldn’t even start to make sense of. 

“What was that?”

“I said I can’t believe you want to get married again.” Nicole repeatedly loud enough to be considered sarcastic. “After all that shit we went through, all that trouble I put you through. You want to do it again?”

Waverly toyed with her ring mindlessly, it wasn’t really a topic she wanted to talk about. Especially with her ex- current wife. 

“I guess I’m just resilient in that way.” Waverly shrugged. 

Nicole chuckled to herself because if Waverly Earp was one thing, it was that. She opened her eyes, staring at the ceiling until the room stopped spinning and then she turned her head to meet Waverly’s eyes. 

“I feel like everyone knows about this guy but me. How’d y’all meet?” 

Waverly shyed under Nicole’s fiery gaze, leaning up and sitting uncomfortable on the edge of the couch as she looked away. 

“Well we met at my job-“

“He’s a teacher?” Nicole interrupted, eyes still trained on Waverly. 

“No, he’s actually an accountant. We met because he’s my boss’s son.” Waverly added reluctantly. She hated telling that part of their story. It always made it seem like her hand was forced into dating him and saying it aloud sometimes made her feel like it was true. 

“Sounds like a chump.” Nicole slurred. 

“No he does not! He’s a nice boy!” Waverly defended. “Man I mean, he’s a nice man.”

“I’m just picking at you Waves.” Nicole chuckled as she laid her hand on top of Waverly’s and rubbed the top to get her attention. “If he makes you happy then I approve. That’s all I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

And that was true. No matter how much it hurt Nicole to watch Waverly marry someone else, no matter how envious she was of the man. 

Waverly’s heart softened at the reluctant sincerity in Nicole’s eyes. 

“And I’m going to sign those papers for you Waves.” Nicole admitted with pained honesty, more willing to admit her truth now that she had a bit of liquid courage. “I always was.”

“Why haven’t you yet?” Waverly asked, seeing her chance to get an answer from Nicole that she’d been so desperately searching for throughout the years. 

“Can I be honest with you?” Nicole asked as she gripped Waverly’s hand, the brunette making no move to pull away as she leaned back against the couch and laid her head in the same position as Nicole. 

“Always.” She breathed as she stared into soft brown eyes. 

“God knows I tried to sign them so many times…” Nicole trailed off, repositioning herself on the couch by putting her arm on the back and leaning against it. Trying to make herself more comfortable with the amount of vulnerability she was offering. “I knew I needed to and trust me, I wanted to so badly. It wasn’t healthy holding onto you like that and I knew it. Hell I even got as far as pulling them out and sitting down in front of them with a pen but when it came time to put ink on paper, I just couldn’t do it. That sounds pathetic doesn’t it?” Nicole asked shyly, her heart on her sleeve as her anxiety began to grow. 

“It doesn’t.” Waverly comforted as she ran a thumb over Nicole’s hand, drawing the redhead’s attention back to her and coaxing her to continue as she lit a path of fire beneath her touch. “What stopped you?”

“I don’t know really.” Nicole huffed as she ran a hand through her hair, tousling red kicks that Waverly couldn’t help but reach up and fix. “At first I thought you’d come back, that we would somehow miraculously make this thing work but eventually I realized that wasn’t going to happen.”

“So why didn’t you sign them after that?” Waverly inquired softly. 

“I don’t know Waves. It just never felt right. I knew at first it was just painful but after that I thought that feeling would fade, that I’d be able to stomach you being gone for good. It was almost like I was waiting for the perfect moment, like I was waiting for it to not feel like I was signing away a part of myself but that just never came.” 

Nicole’s truthfulness nearly knocked Waverly breathless, her words coursing through her body and making a blush bloom in its wake. 

“Is that still-?” Waverly cleared her throat as she instinctively leaned in closer to Nicole, her self control lost in the emotions blanketing Nicoles eyes as her body drifted towards the redhead’s. “Do you still feel that way?”

Nicole stayed silent, eyes fluttering between Waverly’s hard gaze and her soft lips as they worked like a magnet for Nicole’s body. 

Waverly's breath hitched, the air between them growing more electric as the distance between them grew shorter. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out her own inner thoughts that were setting off every alarm in her brain and telling her to pull back.

To stop before it was too late.

Then Nicole pulled her own bottom lip between her teeth and Waverly’s monologue fell completely silent, stomach fluttering in the ever growing anticipation of the fire that was quickly burning between them. The flames mounting higher and engulfing her decision making quicker than she could make sense of. She felt Nicole’s quicken breath blow into her face, reeking of alcohol and making Waverly feel drunk.

“Waves..” Nicole whispered as she closed her eyes, unable to focus them on Waverly’s face with the proximity of the other woman and the way her racing pulse made her even more dizzy. She wasn’t sure what was happening but her self preservation was burned to ashes and she couldn’t find it in her to care about the possible repercussions. 

Waverly placed a hand onto the back of Nicole’s neck, playing with the hair that she found purchase of there. She slowly drew in the redhead, lips nearly brushing against hers until Waverly’s eyes fell onto the clock on the wall behind her. The time snapped her out of the hypnosis her desire had put her under as she pushed Nicole back and jumped off the couch. 

“Shit, shit!” She jumped back as she ran her hands through her hair to collect herself. “I forgot to call Champ! He’s going to be so mad! Can I use your phone?”

“Sure Waves, Whatever you want. It’s on the counter.” Nicole blew out annoyingly as her face fell and she pulled herself off the couch clumsily. “I think I’m going to head to bed.”

“Wait, Nicole..” Waverly attempted as she reached out for the other woman, realizing the moment she’d just flattened. 

“It’s fine Waves. I’m tired and a little drunk. We’ve both had a long day. Let’s just call it a night.” Nicole assured her before she stumbled towards her bedroom. “Goodnight.”

“Night” Waverly offered a small wave as Nicole disappeared behind her bedroom door. 

“What the fuck?” She whispered to herself as she pinched her nose between her fingers, heart still galloping at top flight speed. 

What the hell was she doing? 

Did she almost kiss Nicole?

The thought made Waverly blush. 

Surely she hadn’t. She had just got caught up in the moment, hearing those things come from Nicole after all this time. She’d just been caught up in the reminiscing of it is all. 

She shook her head as she grabbed Nicole’s phone and dialed Champ’s number. 

“Hello?” A groggy voice answered. 

Waverly snuck through the front door, walking out onto the porch and closing it quietly behind her. 

“Heyyy babe.” 

“Waverly? Where the hell have you been?! I’ve been worried sick about you. You were suppose to call three hours ago.” Champ scolded. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I got caught up in a few things here and time just got away from me.” Waverly winced. 

“Wow way to make a guy feel special.” He gruffed. 

Waverly scanned the yard until her eye caught something sticking out of the ground. She aimlessly walked towards it, the grass brushing against her sandaled feet as she moved through the silent night. 

“Have you talked to your wife yet?” He spit condescendingly. 

“Yes I have actually.” Waverly retorted. “I talked to her today and yesterday.”

“So you’re divorced now I take it?” He asked hopeful. 

“Ummm not quite. I’m still sort of.. working on that.” 

“Waverly what the hell? You’ve been there two days. How long is this shit going to take?” 

“Champ I’m trying!” Waverly seethed. “I’ve had a lot going on down here.” 

“Well I’m not going to wait forever Waverly. You need to consider yourself on a time clock while you’re down there frolicking through the cornfields with that hick of yours.” 

Waverly clenched her jaw, stopping in her tracks just before her destination as her hand balled into a fist. Waverly had waited for years for Champ, waited for him to show up to dates after he’d be running late. Waited on him when he’d take longer than her to get ready for a night out. Waited on him to commit to her and stop running around with other women in the beginning of their relationship. 

She’d done quite her fair share of waiting and now he had the audacity to tell her he wouldn’t wait forever. 

No. 

Waverly felt it building, felt the frustration accumulating at its peak before she finally snapped and her anger came rushing out in sweet relief. 

“Champ I don’t care what you do. If you don’t want to wait, then don’t. I don’t care either way. You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I’ve got to do.”

“What are you saying?” He yelled. 

“I’m saying I think I need a break. From you, from all of this. It’s too much and I don’t need you pressuring me to get it done faster. Im trying here so o just back off.” 

Waverly finally reached her destination, her hand with the phone dropping slowly by her side as Champ’s screaming faded quietly beside her. 

She brushed the wood clean, her eyes beginning to water as she fell onto her knees in front of the small wooden cross. 

Calamity Jane  
2009-2014

Waverly felt her resolve crack, heavy sobs wracking through her body as she put a hand on top of the wood, tears flowing freely for herself or Calamity, she couldn’t be sure. 

How had they ended up here? Calamity buried in the ground long after forgetting Waverly had ever even existed. The wood crumbled slightly under her fingers as a sign of just how long the she’d been there, how long it had been since she’d been chunked in the ground and laid to rest without Waverly even knowing she was gone. 

Her chest rattled loudly as she laid her head against her hands that were propped atop the post, not missing how much that cross represented the death of the life she could have had if she’d never left Purgatory. 

How had life turned out so wrong?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and welcome back. 
> 
> Quick run down for you, this chapter doesn’t really offer that much substance outside of even more feelings and even more memories. It was originally the beginning to what will be the next chapter. The reason for the upload is that it’s taking me literally forever to finish the next chapter. I’m already at 13,000 words and probably still have like 5,000 to go. 
> 
> I didn’t want to keep y’all waiting all that time so I wanted to gift this little snippet to y’all in hopes it’ll hold you over for another week. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Waverly’ eyes fluttered open slowly, the scent of brewed coffee and the soft tones of an acoustic guitar wafted through the house as she stirred awake. She blinked the blurriness out of her eyes, the room becoming clearer as a quick second of panic settling it until she remembered where she was. 

Home. 

Er ...Nicole’s home. 

She relaxed back into the couch and stared at the ceiling until an unmistakable soft hum floated into the room. She bracketed herself on the couch with her elbows as she glanced a peak over the back of it and into the kitchen. She couldn’t stop the way the corners of her mouth curled up as she watched Nicole softly sing the words to a Waylon Jennings song that was being played quietly from the record player in the corner of the room. 

Waverly chuckled to herself and shook her head when she saw it. It’s funny how the world around them couldn’t be more different but at the core of it all it still seemed Nicole hadn’t changed a lick. She was still the same Nicole that believed music sounding better on vinyl than it did coming out of the speakers of her phone. She’d always preach that to Waverly, telling her that if she was going to listen to classic music she had to listen to it the way the artist intended for it to be truly appreciated. She had learned to just pat Nicole on the back and agree with her instead of arguing about it. 

Waverly had tried to listen for the difference but she never could hear it, and she eventually gave up because she figured she never would. Nicole was just different in that way, old school with an appreciation for old trucks, old manners, and old music. Everyone always said she was more like an 87 year old stuck in a teenage girl’s body growing up but Waverly definitely didn’t want her to change it. She just had a pure way of doing things and it intrigued Waverly from day one when she’d come bounding in the homestead with a hat two sizes too big and an attitude two ages too old. 

It was all just part of the enigma that was Nicole Haught. 

Of course Waverly never really cared one way or the other if she ever truly heard tha music blasting off that record player for what Nicole claimed it to be. To her it would never sound as good as it did when it was dripping from the gravelly vocal cords of Nicole. She use to sing those songs with so much soul you could feel it in your chest, making the things she felt from the music bloom like a summer sunflower after a heavy July rain with every line she mumbled her way through. It’s not like Nicole was the best singer, but the way she sang those old love songs to Waverly she could make the brunette melt in her hand. 

She’d turn on some George Jones and let Nicole get a little loose off some of Doc’s homemade wine and Nicole would get to singing freely, turning Waverly into a puddle in no time and the brunette was always ready to fall apart. 

“If you keep starin’ at me like that I’m gone think you’re plotting my murder.” Nicole called out from the kitchen, luckily with her back turned so she couldn’t see the blush that spread across Waverly face when she realized she’d been caught. She pulled the blanket that had pooled around her waist up to her chin and covered herself as Nicole walked over to her, all barefoot and sleep worn still clad in her pajamas. The early morning sunlight shone into the kitchen window behind her and illuminated her red hair into a fiery brightness that stood out even more stark against her pale skin. She looked like a memory straight from Waverly’ past walking right into her reality. 

It damn near knocked her breathless. 

“Coffee?”

“Thank you.” She spoke roughly through sleep, taking the offered mug and revelling in the warmth that wrapped around her fingers and flowed through her throat when she took a sip. She embraced it while she closed her eyes, her conscious falling into a comfort one can only find in the peaceful silence the country has to offer. No horns honking or people shouting, no hundreds of footsteps echoing off the concrete and creating a chaotic melody that provides an inescapable vibration. 

Just silence. 

“So how’d you sleep?” Nicole asked as she walked around the sofa. She placed her mug on the coffee table and hovered over the couch while she looked poindtly at Waverly’s feet, waiting for her to move them. 

“You gonna move them big foot feet?” She tapped with a smirk. 

“I don’t have big foot feet!.” Waverly gasped as she dug her feet into the couch even more. “You wear a bigger sized shoe than I do you damned giant.”

Nicole rolled her eyes while she picked both of Waverly’s feet up, placing them both in her lap as she sat down beneath them. 

“All I’m saying is that you’ve always had disproportionate sized feet for your size.” Nicole shrugged with a smug smile. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It never stopped any of us from being friends with you or anything. We just knew that if we ever got stranded on the boat and had to paddle home that we’d be lucky to have you around.”

“You bastards!” Waverly accosted with a jab of her foot into the top of Nicole’s thigh as the redhead burst out in laughter, a sweet melody that made Waverly smile despite her best attempts not to. 

“Seriously though, how’d you sleep?” Nicole patted her leg, hand coming to rest on the top. Waverly’s breath caught in her throat as her eyes fluttered to the touch, a fire burning beneath the blanket where Nicole’s hand lay. 

“Uh- I Uh, I slept great.” Waverly stuttered before bringing her mug to her mouth to cover her stammering. “Thanks again for letting me stay.” 

“I should probably be the one thanking you. I don’t even remember coming in last night to be honest.” Nicole’s brow bunched in confusion as she stared into her coffee and tried to pull memories from the blackness of the liquid and the night before. Mixing a pint of whiskey with her already diagnosed concussion had not been her brightest idea. She just hoped she didn’t do something embarrassing. She really doubted Waverly still found her drunken come ons as endearing as she did in high school. 

Waverly coughed into her coffee mug as she suddenly remembered for herself what had happened the night before. The soft light of the living room wrapping around them as the redhead drew her in with an invisible force Waverly hadn’t even realized was there until she was gripped redlocks and pulling Nicole towards her lips. 

She’d almost kissed her. 

Waverly never thought she’d see the day when she was thankful Nicole was concussed, yet here she was. After laying in the cool grass of the yard for an hour she’d spent nearly the entire night staring into the darkness of Nicole’s living room trying to decipher the whirlwind of emotions she had been feeling. 

The near kiss with Nicole and what it meant when her heart threatened to beat out of her chest and run across the room to climb in the bed with the redhead every time she thought about it. Also what it meant that secretly, whether Waverly wanted to admit it to herself or not, she wanted to follow her heart right in there and that she’d had to stop herself from staring in the direction of Nicole’s bedroom multiple times throughout the night. 

Not to mention Champ and their kinda-sorta breakup and what it meant that she hadn’t thought about him the entire time she’d been home 

Well until she was nearly lip locked with her ex, still current, wife on her couch. 

And she didn’t even start to get into what it meant that deep down in the darkest part of her brain, one that only comes out to play in the dead of the night, a feeling had arose and pulled at her stomach telling her she regretted thinking of him at all. 

Eventually exhaustion had won out and pulled her into sleep with fleeting thoughts that her mind would be more clear in the morning. 

What a crock of shit that was. 

If anything the morning light had only brought more confusion, the comfortable feeling she currently felt sitting on the couch with Nicole, her legs splayed across thighs she couldn’t help but notice were extremely toned and muscular and oh god- 

Nope. No, No, No. 

She was definitely still just as confused as the night before, if not more. 

Maybe being concussed wouldn't be so bad. She wondered how many times she could bang her head against the wall before Nicole stopped her. 

“Uhh, Waves?” 

Waverly blinked back rapidly, not realizing she’d been staring at the wall with fixed eyes and her head shaking rapidly at herself while Nicole just stared at her puzzlingly. 

“Sorry.” She said embarrassed, ear tinted red. “You were no trouble. We basically just came home and went to bed, it was really no problem.”. 

“I’m sorry you had to sleep on this ole couch. I could have at least given you the bed.” Nicole apologized, chastising herself for drunk Nicole’s lack of manners. 

She’d honestly forgotten Waverly was even there until she had stumbled out of her bedroom and nearly had a heart attack when the lump on her couch rolled over. She’d quietly inched her way into the living room and peered down at Waverly, maybe a little creepily if she was being honest. 

Nicole couldn’t help but notice she slept just the same as before, honey hair wild and framing her face with her mouth slightly agape, small snores escaping that, in the morning, Waverly would claim never happened. 

Nicole had hated that sound the last few months of their marriage, she used to just sit up at night blinking into the darkness and stewing in her own aggravation, a gnawing feeling clawing at her with every repetition of the sound. Of course back then she was always aggravated, it had damn near been a personality trait of hers at one point. She hated that about herself because unfortunately it only grew worse with nearly everything Waverly did. Things she once found adorable had quickly turned into Nicole’s biggest pet peeves.

From the way she threw her clothes around the room when she was getting ready for a night shift at Shorty’s only for all of them to greet Nicole when she’d come home from a full day of work ready to just climb in the bed and go to sleep. To the way she’d leave the cap off the toothpaste when she’d get done brushing her teeth in the morning even though Nicole had asked her time and again to please put it back on when she’s finished. 

It was never anything of major importance but it seemed like everything the brunette would drive Nicole insane. At first she’d tried to wave it off, chalking it up to it being the wrong time of the month or that she was working herself too hard. Soon though she’d realized it wasn’t something she could escape. 

Waverly would only claim she was trying to pick a fight when she’d finally explode which only lead her to feeling invalidated and even more angry. 

Looking back now, Waverly had been right. None of that shit had ever really mattered and it had taken Waverly being gone to realize it. To realize she missed the clothes. That she had purposely threw away the cap to the toothpaste for a while. That after Waverly left she would find herself sitting up in bed, sleep completely escaping her without the soft lulls of Waverly’s snoring to coax her into it. 

They were all things apart of a much longer list of stuff she wished she’d realized months long before Waverly had left, when they still stood a chance. When they were still fighting and the silence hadn’t drowned out the arguing. When they weren’t just wasting time going through the motions because they were both too afraid to be the one to end it. When their relationship still had just the faintest pulse and hadn’t died yet.

The fighting had been miserable, but it was nothing like the numbness that accompanied the quiet when the yelling finally settled between them. 

“Actually it’s a pretty comfortable couch if I must say so myself.” Waverly smiled, snugging down into the cushion behind her, coffee mug in hand. 

Nicole couldn’t help but smile. Waverly looked like she belonged there, a missing centerpiece of the puzzle that Nicole had been trying to finish since she started her remodel. 

“Well I guess it is about time I’m the one making you sleep on the couch instead of the other way around.” Nicole joked lightly with a pull on Wavery’s toe, making her squirm. 

“Hey I can’t help that. Maybe you should have came home at a normal hour instead of rambling around with Wynonna all night.” Waverly defended, pressing her toe into Nicole’s thigh playfully. 

Nicole couldn’t blame her there. She’d been wild when she was younger, hell bent on not giving up her youth just because she had adult responsibilities and a wife at home. It was something she never realized she’d feel until she found herselfin that situation of choos on or the other. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be married to Waverly, hell that's all she’d ever wanted. It was like she wanted to be married to Waverly and have nothing change, still be the same wild buck she had always been with Waverly now by her side as her wife instead of her girlfriend.

Waverly of course had had other ideas, the right ones. She quickly matured the way Nicole should have when they said their vows, slowing down and changing from a rowdy teenager to an expectant housewife married to someone that hadn’t even pumped the brakes. 

Now looking back Nicole could only shake her head at her own foolishness, the stubborn way she refused to change just because her pride don’t her not to. 

That’s what happens when you get married at eighteen.

You’re ignorant. 

Nicole could recall a few too many times when she had come stumbling in well past midnight with a steaming Waverly waiting in the drive way to greet her. She understood why Waverly had been so mad now, now that she’s older, but she never could get it then no matter how much Waverly preach it at her. All Nicole knew was that Waverly use to love to go out drinking with her and Wynonna, she found their drunken antics hilarious. Hell she’d been the one driving them when Nicole had taken a baseball bat to the York’s mailbox and gotten thrown in jail for the night. Luckily they hadn’t press charges but she did have to spend the next two Saturday’s building them a new one. 

Then things changed after they got married. Waverly didn’t want to go out anymore, her domestication settling in and erasing that childish part of her. It just hadn’t been the same for Nicole. No matter how many dinners Waverly would have waiting on the stove and how many shows she’d have recorded for them to watch while they ate it, Nicole still found herself wanting to run the roads after work more often than not and at the time she didn’t realize that every time she did, every time Waverly had to fall asleep in their bed alone, Nicole was taking a hammer to the top of the wedge that had began to settle between them. 

It was the main thing she regretted about their relationship. That she had waited too late to stop driving at that wood. 

“What can I say? You knew you were marrying a wild one when you said I do.” Nicole quipped heavily, the heaviness of her guilt evident in the dead tone of her voice. 

She never did tell Waverly about her regrets, even when the brunette sat in front of her and begged Nicole to tell her what she was feeling, a final plea to try and make it all work that Nicole had only stared at empitedly. She had ignored the part of her that had realized Waverly was pulling away, the part that had begged her to do something about it. 

It was the only time she had followed the lead set by her parents, following that easy path of avoidance. 

It was her second biggest regret. 

After she left Nicole wrote Waverly a letter explaining everything she felt, all her regrets and how much she still loved her but she never delivered it, her cowardliness winning out. 

Instead she had bottled it up and stuffed it somewhere she could forget about it until she did just that. Until she realized that life was steadily moving on and she had no choice but to pick herself up and do the same. 

“I’ll make us some breakfast.” She said with a pat to Waverly’s leg before Waverly pulled them closer to her chest and released Nicole from her captivity. 

“Wait, you’re going to make us breakfast? Miss can’t cook an egg?” Waverly laughed. She sat up and stretched before she grabbed her coffee cup and padded into the kitchen behind Nicole, her eyes naturally falling to look at Nicole’s ass before she forced them back up with gritted teeth. I 

“That was one time and you still never let me live it down.” Nicole weakly defended from behind the refrigerator door, only her head peeking up briefly before disappearing again. 

“One time?” Waverly propped herself up against the kitchen island, watching Nicole as she pulled eggs and bacon from the fridge.”Nicole that was every time.”

“You never let me cook! How was I supposed to learn?!”

“You nearly burned our house down trying to make us toast! It was a safety hazard to even have you try! ”Waverly argued with a laugh, a lightness between them that felt like a relief. She didn’t know how much more of the back and forth she could take. 

It didn’t feel like her and Nicole. 

Whatever that is now. 

Waverly chuckled at the look she received from Nicole. She’d never forget that day, walking into the kitchen to see it full of smoke and a panicked Nicole after she had tried to bring Waverly breakfast in bed. They ended up having to get a new toaster and repaint the walls in the kitchen which should have made Waverly feel irate but it didn’t. Nicole’s puppy dog eyes full of disappointment had been so cute all Waverly could do was pull her into their bedroom and strip her of her smoke covered clothes before dragging her into the shower. 

Needless to say though, Waverly had done all the cooking from then forward. 

“Alright, alright. Maybe you’re right.” Nicole reluctantly admitted as she pulled a skillet from the cabinet and placed it on the waiting stove top. “But give me a chance will ya? Can’t an old dog learn new tricks?”

“Mhmm, I guess we'll see won’t we?” Waverly smirked into her coffee cup as she watched Nicole crack an egg into the pan. She jumped back, a splosh of grease popping and painting a spot on the front of her light grey sleep shirt. 

“Damnit.” Her face scrunched before she tried to wipe it away with a dish rag. 

“That isn’t going to do it.” Waverly announced before she walked across the kitchen and grabbed the dish rag from Nicole. She carried it over to the sink and turned on the water, putting a dollop of dish soap on it and rubbing the fabric between her fingers, creating suds in her wake. “For grease you’ve got to use something more than just water. That’ll never get it out. Usually dish soap helps if you act immediately.” 

Nicole watched with caution as Waverly instinctively grabbed the front of her shirt and began furiously scrubbing the spot where the grease had marked her. Her face scrunched in focused concentration as Nicole looked down at her. She couldn’t miss the significance the simple moment carried, a familiarity that hit her square in the chest with a force so deep that it constricted her breathing and made her feel like she couldn’t take a deep breath even if she tried. 

Before Waverly left Saturday’s had always been her favorite part of the week, sleepy mornings that would started with slow love making morphing into easy days that consisted of whatever plans Waverly had committed them to that week. Despite being a homebody Nicole never minded being dragged along behind Waverly as she followed their friends to the river for a day of fishing or down to the mud bog for a day full of four wheeler riding and beer drinking. It was always worth it to see Waverly surrounded by loved ones and smiling brightly from it, wrapping herself around Nicole and getting progressively more handsy with her cheap beer buzz. It was the same as it had always been, Nicole could have a good time regardless so long as Waverly was there. That’s why she’d followed along with every plan Waverly had came up with when they little, no matter how much she would have rathered stayed after school to play cops and robbers than going to the library to look up ancient languages. Waverly had been at the library though. 

However she’d be lying if she said her favorite Saturdays were anything but the ones they’d spend just them, curled up into each other as they sat on the couch watching old rom coms, poking fun at the stupidity of the couples in those movies and promising each other they’d never be like that. 

Saturday’s had always been her favorite. 

Of course after Waverly left those same slow Saturday’s were something that Nicole came to dread for the same reason she use to look forward to them

24 hours of uninterrupted Waverly time. 

Only this time from her haunted memories instead of her dream come true reality. 

Nicole swallowed harshly as she looked away from Waverly, an uneasy feeling settling into her stomach and making her mouth salivate. Her own cynical feelings making her feel troubled with the amount of comfort she felt, comfort that made her think she could get used to sharing these soft moments with Waverly despite the fact the other woman wasn’t hers to receive comfort from. It made her want to brush her hands away and run out of the house until the pressure in her chest subsided. 

Waverly gave the shirt one last scrub for good measure before she looked up at Nicole through soft lashes, a frown falling across her face at the trepidation she saw.

“Hey” She said gently as she grabbed Nicole’s chin and turned her face back to her own, soft brown eyes meeting hers with reluctance

“You al-” She started before the smoke pillowing over Nicole’s shoulder caught her attention. “Uh, Nicole....” she pointed awkwardly. 

Nicole followed Waverly’s finger, turning to look behind her before she saw the smoke cascading up from the black egg in the frying pan on the stove. 

“Mother fucker!” she gritted before she quickly grabbed the pan and tossed it in the sink, the egg breaking into bits and spattering the silver of the sink. She leaned over it, coughing from the gut churning smell and the smoke as she turned on the faucet and let the water hit it with a sizzle. She closed her eyes tightly, face reddening with embarrassment as she leaned over the sink and tried to force her brain to send her back in time like she did when she was little and her and Waverly played superheroes. She felt a small hand land her on the shoulder, making her cringe before Waverly slid up beside her and smacked her lips. 

“Well old dog, at least you tried.” Waverly offered with a shrug as she looked down into the sink with Nicole, face puckering with disgust. “Gross”

“Diner?” Nicole questioned with a sigh as she shut off the water. “My treat.”

“Sure” Waverly agreed as she rubbed Nicole’s back softly with sympathy. 

The more things changed. 

\-----

The scrap of metal forks against ceramic plates meddled with the ding of an ancient cash register filled Waverly’s ears as she followed closely behind Nicole into the diner. It smelled of bacon and brought Waverly back ten years. She felt an odd mixture of nostalgia and tension that comes with walking into a place she no longer felt welcome in, despite once calling it home. 

She instinctively huddled up closer to Nicole, taking reprieve in the redhead’s prescenses as she grasped onto the back of her shirt and followed her through the bustling Saturday morning crowd. 

“Hey Rosie!” Nicole called towards the bar with a raised finger. 

“Hey Red, how’s it hanging?” A dark haired girl Waverly vaguely recognized waved them over with a towel before she tossed it on her shoulder. “I’m surprised to see you out and about so early this morning. They way these people been talking you’d thought you were dead.” 

“To the left.” Nicole joked, making both women scrunch up their noses. “ and no despite their best efforts I am alive and well, just a little banged up but what’s new. Do you think we can get a table?” 

“We? Please don’t tell me Stephanie is here with you again. I told you last time Nicole you can’t keep leading that girl on, she’s only going to keep getting more attached.” Rosita scolded despite Nicole shaking her head and holding up a finger in an attempt to shush her. 

“Well actually, I mean we as in me and Waverly.” Nicole corrected as she side stepped and revealed the short brunette who had been hidden by her body. 

“Waverly Earp? Well I’ll be.” Rosita snorted as she cast eyes upon her. “Y’all didn’t forget y’all’s jackets did y’all? It’s gone get real nippy now that hells done froze over.”

“Ha. Ha. You’re a regular Richard Pryor.” Nicole deadpanned, tapping her fingers on the counter top impatiently. “So can we get a table or not?” 

“You don’t see all these damn people in here Nicole? We’ve been bustin at the seams since we opened this mornin. What makes you think I’ve got a table for you?” 

“Because I’m special.” Nicole said with a dimpled grin as she placed her elbow on the counter and leaned closer to the other woman. She wiggled her eyebrows playfully as Rosita fought a smile. It was the same look that worked on most of the women around town and Nicole knew just when to use it. “Plus, I ain’t got all day woman. I’m starving here.”

Nicole pulled back with a laugh as Rosita popped her on the arm with her rag. 

“Can you please do something with her?” She asked Waverly. “She’s damn near insufferable.”

“I’ve been tryin for most my life but I think she’s a lost cause.” Waverly sighed. 

“I like you.” Rosita pointed out, eyeing Waverly for a moment with a smirk before she slapped Nicole on the shoulder and grasped it tightly. “Follow me.”

Rosita lead them to the back, a table with a reserved tab on it sat open in the corner and the crowd groaned loudly as they sat down on either side. 

“Aw come on Rosie, we been waiting for 30 minutes. Them two just walked in.” Someone whined from the crowd. 

“And you can keep waitin or go somewhere else for your breakfast.” She barked back. 

“There ain’t no other diner in town.”

“Exactly, so shut your trap.” She glared before turning back to Nicole and Waverly.

“Martha will be with you in a minute. You going to the street dance tonight?” She asked Nicole. 

“Now what kinda Purgatorian would I be if I missed the street dance?” 

“Of course, silly me. The people of the town have to have their heralded Nicole Haught or they can’t function.” Rosita mocked. “How bout you Earp?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I didn’t really know it was tonight.” 

“You should come, it’ll be fun.” The woman smiled brightly, turning her attention back to Nicole with a frown. “Ask the girl to the dance why don’t ya? Pull your head outta your ass fool” She slapped Nicole once more on the arm for good measure before she walked back into the kitchen. 

Nicole glanced at Waverly sheepishly, the brunette looking away shyly as an awkward silence fell between them. Nicole brought her hand up to her neck and rubbed the back of it anxiously. It was the same cute way she’d always done it when she was embarrassed. She’d nearly rubbed it raw when she finally got the courage to ask Waverly on their first date. 

“Uhhh, I’m sorry about that. Rosie, she’s crazy as hell. You can’t take her too seriously.” Nicole chuckled nervously. She hadn’t even thought about the dance, much less thought about asking Waverly to go with her. 

Plus, Waverly wouldn’t be interested anyhow. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Waverly said dejectedly, confused by her own disappointment of Nicole’s clear avoidance as she tried to tamper down the feeling of rejection she suddenly felt. It was stupid. It’s not like Waverly had been expecting her to ask her, she hadn’t even known about the stupid dance. 

Plus, Nicole obviously wasn’t interest anyhow. 

“Hey y’all, I’m Martha. I’ll be y’alls server this mornin. Can I get y’all started with a coffee or y’all ready to order?” The waitress quickly introduced as she fumbled through her apron and pulled out a pen and paper. 

“I-“ Waverly started before Nicole cut her off. 

“I think we’re ready. I’ll have the All Star Breakfast, eggs over easy with a coffee and she’ll have the waffles and an orange juice. Peanut butter on the side.” 

“Alrighty. I’ll have those drinks right out to ya and y’alls food’ll be out shortly.” She smiled before disappearing behind the bar. 

Waverly sat wide eyed, mouth agape as she stared at Nicole mesmerized. She could feel her heart thud once loudly in her chest before it stopped for a faint moment and started again.

“What?” Nicole inquired cautiously, unsure of the wild look in Waverly’s eyes. She either wanted to put her in a display case like a porcelain doll or she wanted to kill her. At this point she couldn’t be sure. 

“You remember my order?” Wavelry smiled. Her toes tingled and a shiver worked its way up her spine. She wasn’t used to that feeling anymore, one where she felt that important to someone. Champ barely remembered her birthday, much less the quirky breakfast order she adored so much. 

Truth be told she’d never felt important to anyone until she met Nicole. Only then did she realize the stark contrast between feeling like an obligation people had to deal with and feeling like a priority. The difference had faded with every forgotten anniversary and dinner party that passed during her relationship with Champ and she’d forgotten just how good it felt. 

“Oh shit, I’m sorry Waves. That was so rude. It didn’t even register what I was doing, just habit I guess.” Nicole quickly apologized with a shake of her head as she moved to get out of the booth. “I’m sure I can catch her before she puts it in.”

Waverly grabbed Nicole’s hand and squeezed it gently, garnering the redhead’s attention. 

“It’s fine Nicole, perfect actually. It was exactly what I was going to order anyways.” She beamed and rubbed her thumb over the top of Nicole’s knuckles. “I can’t believe you actually remember that after all this time.”

“Yeah, well not too many weirdos want peanut butter on their waffles instead of syrup so it’s kinda hard to forget.” Nicole smirked jeerfully. 

“It is not weird!” Waverly contended with a hand to her chest. “Lots of people eat peanut butter on their waffles. It’s a perfectly normal decetancy.”

“Whatever you say.” Nicole relented with a roll of her eyes. 

“It is whatever I say.” Waverly said matter of factly as she took a sip of her orange juice. “So who is that girl? I know I’ve seen her before.” She asked, pointing to Rosita who stood across the room scolding another patron. 

“That’s Rosita Bustillos. She graduated I think a year before me, so two before you.” Nicole answered. “You know her, she’s the one that ran off with that biker gang after she graduated, the one everybody was talking about at school when we started back. Remember because Wynonna said she was her idol?” She laughed. 

“Oh yeah I do remember her. Damn I figured she’d never come back to this town as quick as she left.” 

“Guess this town has a way of drawing people back around.” Nicole looked at Waverly knowingly. 

“Guess so.” Waverly agreed bashfully. “So what she works at the diner now?” 

“More like owns it.” Nicole clarified. “She showed up about a few years after you left and bought the place. Just in time too because had it not been for her the diner probably would have closed.” 

Waverly couldn’t help but think maybe it was less the town that drew people back and more like fate that pulled them back instead. 

Laughter bubbled from Nicole’s throat as she broke out into giggles, the sound making Waverly’s chest flutter and her mouth turn up in a smile she could never deny herself when Nicole got like that. It was always such a contrasting sound to her calm demeanor that it was contagious to anyone around her. 

“What is it?” Waverly said through chuckles.

“God Sorry.” Nicole wiped her eyes. “I was just thinking about that time. Do you remember that time Curtis spilled that coffee all over Gus’s lap?” Nicole broke off cackling as she stammered through the last part. 

“Oh my god I forgot all about that!” Waverly began to laugh heartily at the memory, the look on Curtis’s face when he leaned over the table and knocked a full mug of coffee into Gus’s lap, staining her brand new Sunday dress. “She could have killed him I think.”

“Shit I thought she was going to.” Nicole sighed as her chest finally relaxed and she was able to take a deep breath. 

Once Gus and Curtis got over their anger at Waverly and Nicole the four of them had made it a tradition to meet up at the diner on Sunday’s for a late breakfast. They'd sit around and drink on overbreweed coffee while Curtis would tell them the same stories they’d all heard a million times, particularly how Curtis had taken Gus on their first date to the diner and she’d denied him a kiss. He would always pout and sull until she’d remind him that she had made it up to him on their second date when she’d agreed to marry him. They’d bicker back and forth, making Nicole and Waverly smile and dream about what they’d be like after being married for as many years as them two had. 

It was the same thing every Sunday with Wynonna sprinkling inhere and there when she wasn’t too hungover to make it in time. They never missed a single one of them. 

Well until Curtis died and then they never went back, the pain too substantial for any of them to bear. Instead they’d just carried on the tradition at the homestead where Wynonna never missed a date. 

Waverly reckoned they’d all give anything to hear his stories just one more time. 

“Jesus Christ! There you two are!” 

Wavelry and Nicole turned their heads just as Wynonna came into view. She pushed her way through the crowd, not a single excuse mumbled from her mouth before she plopped herself down on Nicole’s side of the booth. “Where the fuck have you guys been? I’ve been looking for y’all all mornin.”

“Did you think to call me?” Nicole asked, righting herself in the booth after Wynonna pushed her over. 

“I mean no but you’re usually stuck up my ass by this time so I didn’t really think I was gone need to look for you.” 

“Whatever Earp.” Nicole bumped her shoulder into the other woman’s. “You’re usually not even up by this time.”

“I’ll have you know I’ve been working hard all mornin getting ready for the street dance while you’ve been….doing what? Playing hooky with my little sister? Typical.” Wynonna chastised as she grabbed Nicole’s coffee, much to her protest, and chugged half of it, the liquid spilling down the front of her shirt as her lips chased the cup Nicole quickly pulled away. 

Waverly could only shake her head as she watched the two women bicker back and forth, like the larger versions of the same two small heathens that had roamed the town of Purgatory stirring up trouble all those years ago. It had never been easy for Wynonna to make friends, too opinionated and hard pressed on having her way with everything. Gus would always say it was the greatest day and the worst when Wynonna finally met Nicole. She was the more laid back version of the outlaw but with the same hell raising tendencies the older Earp had running through her veins. The two had been a match made in heaven for one another and a match made it hell for everyone else, constantly testing the limit of every rule set before them. Like the time they climbed the water tower and spray painted the side of it. Waverly remembers because she had kept watch by the fence, whistling Dixie when she saw Nedley’s cruiser pull up. She’d been just a tad too late and had it not been for Curtis, Nedley would have taken them both into the station that day. Instead, he had them working over the summer repainting the water tower and half the graffiti in town as punishment. They had both griped and complained but they were the ones tagging most of the buildings so they couldn’t really argue against it. Curtis had told them the morning he dropped them off for their first day of community service that the next time they wanted to go vandalizing they may want to use something other than their own initials. 

It was a long summer but they got it done, under Waverly’s direct supervision of course. 

“Oh yeah, speaking of, don’t forget you said you’d drive me and Doc to the street dance tonight. ” She pointed out to Nicole. 

“Uhh I don’t remember agreeing to that.” Nicole countered. She’d been the third wheel one too many times when it came to Wynonna and Doc and she knew just how quickly they could forget she was there when they got to drinkin. The stained memory of Doc’s very white ass tattooed on her brain would never let her forget that. 

“Last night, you said. You said you would drive us to the street dance so we could drink.” Wynonna argued. “Don’t be an Indian giver on your promises Nicole.”

Nicole’s chanced a glance at Waverly who only shrugged in typical Earp fashion, offering no help as a way out. Waverly and Wynonna had always had a way about them when it came to coercing Nicole into doing something she didn’t want to do. That’s how she’d ended up squeezing damn near a hundred lemons, right up until her fingers were near burnt off, when they got the genius idea of running a lemonade stand. Of course, Waverly had kissed them all better so Nicole figured it was worth it. 

“Fine, Whatever.” Nicole relented with a grunt. “But be ready at seven. I don’t want Gus all ornery because we showed up late again.” 

“Aye Aye captain.” Wynonna said with a mock salute before her eyes widened. “Hey I’ve got a great idea. Why don’t you come with us Waves? It’ll be just like old times.”

Waverly cringed and look at Nicole nervously, remembering the other woman’s reluctancy on the topic earlier. 

“I don’t know Wynonna, I wouldn’t want to impose.” Waverly rejected shyly. She hadn’t spent the morning screaming at Nicole which was a step forward but she didn’t want to push the limits on how much they were both willing to handle. 

“Impose? Nicole tell her she wouldn’t be an imposition.” Wynonna instructed with a slap to Nicole’s chest, making her grip it in pain. “Sorry, forgot again.” 

“Really Waves, it'd be no imposition at all.” Nicole said softly with a gleam in her eye Waverly didn’t miss. “I’d actually really like that, if you’d come with us.”

“See babygirl Nicole wants you to come, Whatta you say?” 

“Sure.” She grinned warmly. 

“Yesss!” Wynonna fisted pumped before grabbing the collar of Waverly’s shirt and the sleeve of Nicole’s, pulling them with her arms as close as she could get them to one another with the table in between. “I’m so glad you guys are friends again!” 

Wynonna finally released them after planting a kiss to each of their cheeks and stealing a piece of sausage off Nicole’s plate as Martha placed their food down on the table. “Now that that’s settled, I gotta go. I told Gus I had to get something out of her truck so I probably should have been back like...” She checked a watch on her wrist that wasn’t there. “ ...twenty minutes ago. Anywho, I’ll see you guys tonight.!”

She grabbed another piece of sausage from Nicole’s plate and scooted across the diner, ignoring Nicole’s calling out behind her. She smiled to herself as she stepped outside and dug her phone out of her pocket, flipping it open to her group message thread titled GIRL POWER. 

(Wynonna 10:05): Wayhaught street dance date is a go.

Her phone pinged immediately as another message came through immediately. 

(Chrissy 10:06): THANK GOD. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO GOOD. Also, I knew you’d love the name. 

Wynonna rolled her eyes. 

(Wynonna 10:06:)What can I say, it grew on me. They are riding with me and Doc so we will see you guys there. It’s time to take this plan to the next level. These two idiots might as well be Scott and Tessa the way they are skating around one another. 

(Chrissy 10:07): Hahaha I agree! Time to kick it into high gear, I’m sick of waiting on them to reconnect. See you then!” 

(Perry 10:07): PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM THIS TEXT THREAD. I’M NOT EVEN A GIRL.

**Author's Note:**

> I got some good feedback for the post I posted yesterday so I added the rest of the chapter. Hope you guys like it!


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